Just Won't Die 11: Nene
by OneShot
Summary: This is a mostly a Ranma/Bubblegum Crisis/Ghost in the Shell crossover. Ranma enjoys adventuring and goes on yet another adventure, this time to the world of Ghost in the Shell, Nene in accompaniment. There, they meet Motoko and Bateau.


Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Just Won't Die 11: Nene

"Urd,"  
Urd turned toward Ranma, "What is it, Ranma?"  
"Can you send me back?" he asked.  
The comment surprised Urd immensely, "Really? You want to live again?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, can you do that for me?"  
"Of course," she said, "But whatever for?"  
"I made a promise to a little girl named Jun," he answered, "I don't wanna break that promise,"  
Urd smirked, "That's very sweet of you, Ranma. That's what I really like about you,"  
"So will you do it?" he asked.  
"Sure," she smiled.  
"Thanks,"

Nene had a boring life, even by her own standards.  
She entered her apartment after a long day of work. Even though it was only six in the evening, she was tired and wanted to go to sleep.  
She had pulled a double shift, a fellow co-worker having asked her for that favor. Besides, she needed the money.  
She threw her keys on the tiny table located just to the side of the entrance and headed for the computer room to check her email.  
She decided she was going to take a quick nap. What was great was that she didn't have to worry about anyone telling her that it would ruin her sleep schedule. She was her own woman and lived her life the way she saw fit. No one told her what to do, at least at home that is. Work was a totally different subject. Although she had worked at A.D. Police Headquarters for close to half her life, she didn't move up in the working world. She had been given an exuberant amount of opportunities to be promoted, but she constantly declined. She liked being a data entry clerk and was very happy with her job.  
Besides, she didn't want to be promoted. She didn't want the extra stress and responsibilities that usually accompanied promotions. Because of how long she had worked there, she had quite a bit of seniority but little responsibility.  
It wasn't that she was irresponsible, far from it. It was because she wanted to work to live, not live to work. It was as simple as that. Sure, she didn't make as much money as Ritsuko or Misato or any of the other adult females, but she was very happy with her job.  
That was what counted.  
Nene took a glance around her apartment. She didn't live in poverty, but she didn't live extravagantly. She lived in a modest two bedroom apartment, the second bedroom currently being used for her computer. She had perhaps one of the greatest and most powerful computer on the planet. As much as she wanted it in her own bedroom, the noise it generated made it too loud for her to sleep, thus, it requiring its own room. Besides, she didn't like noise all that much.  
Her kitchen was virtually spotless, she never really cooking for herself. Although she lived by herself, she wasn't all that great a cook so she tended to avoid cooking if possible. The only time she really entered in the kitchen was to make coffee or boiling some water to make some soup.  
Her livingroom was messy, much like her bedroom. There were cardboard boxes strewn all about her apartment. They contained all her stuff from when she moved out of her tiny one-bedroom apartment awhile back. Sure, it had been about a year ago since she moved into this bigger apartment, but she believed she would move again in a few more years from now so there was no real need to unpack. It would only mean more things for her to pack up for when she does move again.  
Among those cardboard boxes were other cardboard boxes, all of them filled with various antique clocks, a hobby of hers.  
She couldn't help but believe she lived a rather eccentric life, she sometimes randomly sleeping outside on the livingroom couch instead of her own bed. There was no explaining it either.  
Entering her computer room, she sat down in front of her computer. The screen turned on automatically as she sat down.  
"Eva, do I have any email?" she asked aloud.  
"Only one of any importance," the computer replied in a female voice.  
"All right," she said.  
She went about reading her email. It was from A.D. Police Headquarters, telling her of an upcoming charity function at the end of the month.  
After reading it, she got out of her seat, "I'm going to sleep. Goto standby mode,"  
"Okay," the computer named Eva replied.  
Eva was one of the most powerful computers on the planet. Its name was derived from the computer that used to be integrated in the Unit-01 the God-version of Ranma had saved which Ritsuko later used to integrate with her already developed MAGI system to make it even more powerful.  
Nene's computer was basically Ritsuko's own MAGI computer but custom-  
developed for Nene. Although neither of them admitted it, it was said that Nene and Ritsuko were computer rivals. This was because they both shared a love for computer that bordered along the lines of obsession. Funnily enough, although Ritsuko was more known for her knowledge of computers, Nene was actually better at using them. She knew how to use a computer to its full potential. It was very ironic because Nene could used the MAGI better than Ritsuko could, and Ritsuko had developed MAGI in the first place.  
It was proven that Nene was more knowledgeable. During one random Friday dinner, Ritsuko had mentioned that MAGI-2 was almost complete and ready to be unveiled to the public. When Nene said that she might take a early peek at it by hacking into her company's computer and seeing sensitive information about MAGI-2, Ritsuko had commented that Nene would be unable to, that her computer was locked down from the outside world and impossible to hack.  
Nene considered that a challenge and accepted it. To make things fun, she gave Ritsuko one week to completely fortify her company's computer. At the end of the week, Nene hacked into Ritsuko's computer during her fifteen-minute coffee break. After she had gotten into Ritsuko's computer, she left a small message 'Ph34r m3. l33t h4x0r, N3N3, W45 h34r', which basically translated to 'Fear me. Elite hacker, Nene, was hear'. It took Ritsuko about a day to decipher the message, she not all that familiar with 'l33t speak'. Besides, it was an ancient language in the computer world. What was funny was that Nene left a very simple version of her message, so it wouldn't look like random gibberish. Nene felt very proud of herself. Unfortunately, her victory wasn't quite as glorious as she had wanted it to be when Ritsuko corrected her spelling and said she misspelled 'here'.  
Nene laughed to herself as she thought about that. That had happened not too long ago. She wondered if Ritsuko would one day try and hack into her computer.  
"You just try," Nene said to herself as she headed across her apartment and toward her bedroom.  
Entering her bedroom, Nene flopped down on her bed.  
She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall. It read six-fifteen.  
"I'll just sleep for an hour," she said to herself, yawning.  
Closing her eyes, Nene went to sleep and slept all the way until morning.

"What ever happened to the hottie that used to visit you every here and there?" Yuko asked Nene.  
Nene was at work at A.D. Police Headquarters and Yuko was a fellow co-worker that worked on the terminal right next to hers. They always went to lunch together. It was sometime in the morning, but because there were no windows where they worked, it was hard to tell what time of the day it was unless one looked at a clock.  
"Nene, what ever happened to that cute guy we see pop in here from time to time?" Yuko asked again.  
Nene had been snacking on some potato chips when Yuko asked that. When she heard that, she stopped but said nothing.  
She knew who Yuko was referring to.  
Ranma.  
It had been a little over a year since Ranma had disappeared from everyone's lives, he having chosen to remain in heaven and not have Urd resurrect him like everyone else. "Something the matter?" Yuko asked, wondering why Nene was quiet suddenly. They always talked whenever work wasn't busy. Now was one of those times when it wasn't busy.  
Nene couldn't help but feel a bit sad, "Ranma's gone,"  
What was funny was that even though it had been over a year since Ranma disappeared forever, she still felt an attachment toward him. She was one of the few people that knew what really happened to Ranma.  
"Gone? Gone where?" Yuko asked.  
"He died a while ago," Nene said, feeling as if she was telling the truth in a sense. Besides, there was no real reason to tell the truth. Fact was definitely much stranger than fiction. "R-really? He did? When? Why didn't you tell me?" Yuko said. She became a bit sad, "Um, I'm sorry to hear that. I shouldn'tve asked that question,"  
"It's okay," Nene said, giving a forced smile, "I've learned to move on,"  
"What happened to him, um, if you don't mind my asking?" Yuko asked cautiously.  
Nene said, "He was hit by car. A car ran a red light and hit him. He was basically at the wrong place at the wrong time,"  
"I-I'm sorry to hear that," Yuko said, "Really, I am,"  
Nene waved a dismissive hand, "It's okay. That was a while ago. I've learned to move on,"  
"You're really strong," Yuko commented.  
Not as strong as you think, Nene thought. Nene had been nothing more than a shadow of her former self for weeks after she came back and had found out Ranma was gone for good. "You really loved him, didntja?" Yuko dared to ask.  
Nene nodded without hesitation, "Yeah,"  
She felt no embarrassment about it. It wasn't until around two months after Ranma had been gone did it hit her that she had been in love with Ranma. She knew she really liked him ever since she had first met him many many year ago, but she had always believed it was more along the lines of a physical attraction thing, more along the lines of a crush than love.  
One random day, it dawned on her that she was never going to see Ranma ever again. Tears started flowing from her eyes and they wouldn't stop. At that point in time, it made her realize that she had been in love with him.  
It also pained her greatly that Ranma never knew that, that she had never told him. She knew Ranma knew that she liked him, but she was pretty sure he didn't know that she loved him. Even if he did know that she loved him, she had never actually said those words to him.  
If she ever saw Ranma again, she swore to herself that she would confess to him that she was in love with him.  
As sad as she was, she wasn't terrible sad. Afterall, misery loves company. Several of the other girls hadn't been able to tell him of their feelings as well. It was no surprise that Misato had been in love with him. Luna had believed she was falling in love with him with everything happened. Akane had secretly been in love with him well before Ranma anyone else, well before the Nerima Massacre. Basically, virtually all the girls that Ranma had prolonged contact with had found themselves either in love or slowly falling in love with him over time. Only two people did not. They were Madigan and Emiko. Madigan had Carper. Emiko had Shinji. That was most likely the reason why.  
Nene wondered why that was the case. How can so many girls be in love with the same guy? What about him made girls fall for him? Sure, he was handsome and smart and kind, but there had to be more than that. There were plenty of other guys like that out in the world, so what made him special? What about Ryoga? Ryoga, in a sense, was just as good as Ranma. He's just as handsome and just as kind and just as smart as Ranma. Perhaps he wasn't quite as smart as Ranma, but he was definitely stronger than him. So how come none of the girls were in love with him?  
Nene knew why. Because Ryoga was never around. With guys like Ranma and Ryoga, it was most likely inevitable that they would fall for them over time. They have a quality to girls fell in love with. If she thought about it, none of the girls ever loved Ranma when they first met him. It wasn't until the got to know him did they start falling for him.  
Nene sighed. "Um, you want to go to Shanigan's for lunch?" Yuko asked, wanting to change the subject.  
Nene thought about for a moment, feeling a bit happy at the change in subject.  
"I guess so,"

Nene felt a bit cold as she walked home. Since her apartment was relatively close to work, she always walked. She lived in a safe area so she had nothing to worry about when walking home. Perhaps it was because she lived so close to A.D. Police Headquarters. Whatever the case, it made walking home from work in the evening not all that scary.  
Back then, she used to ride her scooter to work, but there was no need for it since it would be more trouble parking it than to just walk the short distance.  
Besides, she hadn't ridden the scooter in quite a while and she had a funny feeling it would die on her as she was riding it.  
Looking up at the sky, she noticed the dark clouds in the far off distance. It was going to rain soon.  
She shrugged. She wasn't all that bothered at the thought of rain. She would be home in five minutes, long before it started to rain. And since she rarely went out, it didn't bother her one bit to have to stay in because of the rain, so long as she had Internet connection that is.  
Nene paused for a moment in front of her five-story apartment complex. It was an old building and was starting to show its age. The fact that it was sitting between two modern-looking apartment complexes made it seem all the more older. Her apartment was located on the top floor, the fifth floor. Looking up toward the window that was to the livingroom of her apartment, she wondered what she looked like during the times when she saw by said window and glanced down toward the street below.  
She had made a habit of doing that, sitting by the window during the evening. This was because the window faced West which usually gave her a good hour or so of sunlight so she could work on her hobby, antique clock. She liked working in natural light, it was one of her quirks, something very ironic considering most computer-geniuses usually did their best work under artificial light.  
Of course, that was for computer related stuff. She had a hobby outside computers. It was an odd hobby. She liked collecting and fixing antique clocks. There was a pawn shop located in the middle of the city and very close by, near a deli Shinji and Emiko usually frequented, where she would buy an antique clock and work at it until it looked as good as new.  
She rarely ever bumped into Shinji or Emiko. This was because they went to Makunouchi Gym usually during the day, when she was at work. She only went to the pawn shop in the evening. She only knew about the deli because Shinji and Emiko talk about how the eat there every day while on their way home from their workout at the gym.  
Nene usually ends up picking up a sandwich at the deli on her way home whenever she stops by the pawn shop nearby.  
When she was done fixing it up the antique clock, she would put them away in one of the cardboard boxes that lined one of the walls of her livingroom. She never put them out on display or use. Perhaps it was because they were noisy everyone hour on the hour.  
Nene wondered how much longer she had until she would be finished with her new project. It was her biggest project yet, an antique pocket watch. Literally, it was her smallest project. Figuratively, it was her biggest one. This was because the pocket watch had many more parts, all of which were much smaller than what she was accustomed to.  
When she heard thunder in the distance and the storm getting closer, Nene decided she should stop daydreaming and head into her apartment.  
Taking the elevator up to the fifth floor, Nene wondered if it was better if she took the stairs instead. She was two pounds heavier than her usual weight. If a guy weighed two pounds more than he was supposed to, he couldn't care less. It was different with girls. Weighing even half a pound over their average weight was considered depressing.  
Nene wondered if it was better to just quit eating the potato chips she usually snacked on at least once a day every day or to start taking the stairs to compensate.  
After a moment of quiet contemplation, she decided she should try and take the stairs more often. She didn't want to give up her potato chips.  
She also decided, for now, she would only take the stairs going down, because going up stairs was much harder than going down stairs. It was easier to let gravity do the work. Maybe after a month or so of walking down several flight of stairs, she would be fit enough to walk up several flight of stairs as well. Only time will tell.  
Entering her apartment, Nene did her usual routine of tossing her apartment keys onto the table next to the entrance door and heading into the computer room to check on her email. When she realized she got no email, she felt a bit sad. She, liked everyone else, liked getting email. It meant people was paying her attention. Then again, who would send her email? Done with checking for email, Nene left the computer room and went into the livingroom. She walked up to the window and sat down by the chair nearby and looked down at the pieces of gears and sprockets and parts laid out on a towel on the square table in front of her.  
She worked on the antique clock for about half an hour before there was insufficient sunlight to continue and she called it quits for the day. This was because the clouds blocked out the setting sun as it started to rain.  
Looking at her watch, she noticed it was around seven in the evening. Around this time, she usually went out and down the block to get something to eat. Since it was raining, she would not be heading out. And since she had no food in the fridge, she would not be eating tonight.  
She sighed.  
Nene couldn't help but feel a bit sad at her life. It was so routine. Everyday, she came home at the usual time. She would then check her email before going about working on her current antique clock project. After that was done and over with, she didn't have much else to do except sit in front of her computer.  
Going to the computer room, Nene checked her email again, just in case. Perhaps someone emailed her during the half hour she was busy. That made her realize just how much of a computer person she was. She was definitely the kind of person that checked her email late at night after getting up to use the bathroom while on her way back to bed from said bathroom.  
Finding no email, she went about keeping herself occupied. She had a routine as well in front of the computer. She would check out several websites in certain a order. She liked several things about the Internet. She was hooked on reading a particular genre of fanfics of a particular anime she remembered from when she was young. That usually occupied a good couple of hours of her time. From there, she went about checking hacking forums on several websites. This occupied a couple more hours as well. When all was done, it was usually around one in the morning.  
Ranma had gotten her into anime. He had been the only person in the group that liked it so she had given it a try. After watching a few random anime shows that Ranma had given her, she realized she liked it. Of course, it was after Ranma had disappeared did she get into it. Fanfiction was something she liked but had trouble getting into, solely because many fanfic writers wrote very slowly and she found it a bit agonizing waiting for them to update. That was why she now only checked one particular website known to archive only finished fanfics. She only checked that site and read whatever fanfics were archived on that site since she knew it would have an ending.  
She couldn't help but wonder what Ranma would think of that if he was there. He never discovered fanfics simply because of his lack of computer knowledge. It would be so cool if he was around and liked fanfics.  
No one knew that she was a closet anime otaku. If they knew, it was most likely that Linna and Priss would make fun of her or at least tease her. With Ranma liking anime so openly, none of them bothered him since he just brushed off whatever jibes they threw at him. She was different.  
They knew she liked working on antique clocks and sometimes teased her about it, but it didn't bother her as much. Such a hobby was considered 'unique' so there was nothing they could say much about it, unlike anime which they considered just plain 'weird'.  
Reading in front of her computer usually took a few hours. When she was done with that, she would then head off to sleep, it usually being around eight where she would wake up for work tomorrow and repeat everything all over again.

Friday was the only day where her usual routine was different. This was because she, and everyone else, went out to their weekly Friday dinner. Friday night was the night when her usually mundane routine week became chaotic. This was because, every Friday night, she had no idea what was going to happen. Although Ranma was no longer around to fuel the chaotic flame, he being the main instigator, the combination of so many different personalities sharing a meal together usually made things exciting.  
Shinji had become the Ranma of the group, or at least that was what she believed. He wasn't swooned upon like him, but he had a slight aura to him that reminded her of him. Shinji acted more confident and outgoing, a stark contrast from how he used to be. Of course, considering what he had been through, it was easy to understand why.  
Every here and there, Madigan and Carper and their daughter, Jun, joined them. Jun was now eleven and starting to look like she would become a very beautiful woman when she grew up. When she was with them, everyone had to be more reserved in what they said, not wanting to soil her innocent ears. It was all good. Although the group seemed more along the lines of a bunch of grown-ups acting like children, they were also very capable of acting grown-up if need be.  
Tonight's Friday dinner, Jun was going to be there so their conversations would have to be a bit more tight-lipped.  
When Nene got home at around six, she went about preparing for Friday dinner, which was usually around eight-thirty to nine.  
That mean she had over two hours to prepare. That was plenty of time. Unlike most females, Nene didn't need an exuberant amount of time to prepare.  
A female always needed time to prepare to do whatever it is that they would be doing. Nene was different. She was the type of girl that only needed around ten minutes to get ready, unlike the usual two plus hours that took regular girls to prepare. Nene was naturally cute so she didn't need make-up or all that other stuff that most girls put on their face. She was never going to look beautiful so there was no real need to spend extra time trying to look beautiful. No matter how hard she tried to do so, the end result was that she would only look cute. She wasn't quite like a guy though. She did spend at least some time getting ready to go out, albeit little. She needed to at least take a shower and wash her hair and brush her teeth and put on some antiperspirant but that was all. With a guy, as long as he didn't smell, he was considered ready to go out.  
She sighed, that would be such an easy life.  
Wondering why she was even bothering thinking about that, Nene went about with her usual business of checking email and then working on her antique clock project.  
When she was done with that, she went to her computer where she would spend the rest of her time until it was time to get ready to head out for Friday dinner.

"Hey," Linna smiled.  
"Hey," Nene smiled in return.  
Linna was standing in front of Nene's apartment, leaning against her car. She picked Nene up at her apartment every Friday night. She drove a fancy-looking sports car, able to afford it due to her high-paying job as the most premier fitness trainer in all of MegaTokyo.  
They greeted each other, inquiring on stuff like how each other's work and week was, the both of them always saying that nothing new had happened like always.  
Together, Linna drove them to their meeting place, Akane's house. Along the way, they conversed in the car. They talked about nothing in general. The conversation actually seemed somewhat forced.  
It was very odd now that Nene thought about it. Everyone used to be very close. However, over time, what with the fact that many of them now had time-consuming careers, they have all started losing touch with one another, as if their friendship was drifting apart.  
It was like that with all of them. Sure, she was still close to Sylia and Priss and Linna, but that was because they used to be the Knight Sabers and were extremely close from then. However, that was over a decade ago. Friday dinner kept everyone coming together on a weekly basis. The importance of it became evident after Ranma was gone. He had been the one that came up with that idea, to have everyone come together once a week and just enjoy one another's company. If it weren't for that, Nene was pretty sure everyone would've gone their own separate way and basically lose contact with one another.  
It was easy to see why. They were slowly drifting apart since there was nothing bringing them together. Friday dinner was the only thing keeping them constantly coming together on a weekly basis. Friday dinner was much like all Friday dinners, a bit chaotic. It was about the same size as most gatherings. However, this time around, Madigan and Carper and Jun were there. Unfortunately, Lina and Luna weren't, having gone back to their own world for the time being. Ryoga was lost as well so he wasn't around either.  
"So, Ritsuko have you found a way of getting back at Nene after she schooled you in computers by hacking into your company's computer?" Linna asked with a smirk. That was the current subject as of late. Ritsuko narrowed her eyes at Linna, "She got in merely because of an error on my part,"  
"Hey, didntja hack in during your coffee-break?" Linna asked Nene.  
Nene gave a slight smile, "Um, well, yeah,"  
"You better lock down your computer," Sylia commented to Nene, "I'm pretty sure that Ritsuko's going to hack into your computer as a way of getting revenge,"  
Everyone laughed. They enjoyed the rivalry that seemed to be evident between Ritsuko and Nene. In a way, it seemed much like the rivalry between Ranma and Ryoga.  
"So, Shinji, how goes the school?" Priss asked, wanting to change the subject.  
Shinji smiled, "It's nice. I didn't realize it was so hard taking over the Anything-Goes Martial Arts school was such hard work, but I like it,"  
"Keep in mind that I did it for quite a while," Akane smirked, "Surely, you should be able to handle something that with no problem. Afterall, you're a big strong man and I'm just a weak little girl,"  
Everyone laughed, even Shinji.  
Shinji was constantly picked on because he was usually the only guy in the group. Carper sometimes had dinner with them, but he usually came with his wife and daughter only once in a while so everyone got used to Shinji being the only guy there.  
As they enjoyed indulged in conversation, Shinji happened to have glanced up and saw a familiar face approached the table.  
It was Ranma.  
"Who's that?" the younger Asuka asked.  
The younger Misato and Ritsuko looked at Ranma curiously, wondering who he was. After a moment, they recognized him as the Ranma everyone had been talking about for so long that had done wondrous things.  
"Hey, guys," Ranma smiled warmly.  
The entire group stopped what they were doing, their mouths agape from shock of seeing Ranma. They had no idea what to say, believing their minds were playing tricks on them, like they were seeing an illusion. Nene's heart started racing.  
Ranma was back. She had secretly prayed that he would come back one day. If he was back, that meant she had an opportunity to confess to him her feelings.  
"Ranma?" Shinji was the first to say.  
"Yep, and I'm back. And this time, to stay," Ranma said, scanning the table. His gaze came to rest on Madigan's and Carper's daughter, Jun.  
"Hey, Jun," Ranma smiled, "How's my favorite little girl. Long time no see,"  
"Ranma!" Jun shouted gleefully, extending her hands out.  
Ranma walked over there and picked Madigan's and Carper's daughter.  
"Long time no see," Ranma smiled warmly, giving Jun's cheek a kiss.  
"See, I knew he was gonna come back," Jun squeaked happily toward the shocked group.  
Everyone was still at a loss of words.  
Ranma smiled at the group.  
"I'm back because I'm not going to break the promise I made to little Jun," Ranma said.  
Nene's heart felt like it was going to shatter.

new stuff 2/3

It was very funny why Ranma was back. It turned out that Ranma made a nuisance of himself in Heaven and it was in anarchy because of him. This was because Ranma was constantly went into the control center, the heart of Heaven. "I want Ranma sent back to Earth," Skuld complained to Urd, "I can't stand him being up in Heaven with us,"  
"I will," Urd said, "Ranma asked me the other day about being sent back. I'll be sending him back to Earth by the week's end. He said he wanted to go back home on Friday night,"  
"Good," Skuld said.  
"Why? What did he do this time?" Urd asked, believing it was best that she not asked.  
"I found him using Yggdrasil to download porn," Skuld said.  
"What? How did he do that?" Urd asked.  
"How the heck am I supposed to know?" Skuld said, "I step away from the computer for a quick break, and when I come back, Ranma's sitting in front of the screen and busy downloading porn. I don't know how he did it,"  
"You're Yggdrasil's system administrator," Urd stated, "You should know what he did. You know everything about Yggdrasil,"  
"I thought I knew everything as well. However, after what had happened, it seems like I don't," Skuld said in annoyance, "I have a funny feeling that it wasn't because of technical knowledge that allowed him to do that. I think it was pure luck,"  
Urd shrugged, "Perhaps,"  
"You're God, remove Ranma's luck," Skuld said.  
Urd shook her head, "You know I can't. All that luck was bestowed on Ranma by the previous God. I can't undo what He did back then. Heck, I can't even undo the powers Ranma received from when he was God momentarily. The only way his powers can be undone is if he undoes them himself. And from the look of things, it seems like he doesn't intend to give it up any time soon,"  
Skuld wanted to pull our her hair, "This is so annoying. Can't you just create a world and send him to it?"  
"And then what? Ranma will find his way back," Urd replied.  
"Lettme get this straight," Skuld stated, "You're God. However, Ranma has the exact same powers as you. The only difference is that he knows how to fight and can, thus, kick your ass and dethrone you if he wanted to? Therefore, Ranma's basically God because he can become God whenever he wants,"  
Urd said nothing. Skuld, in a way, was correct. "Argh! This sucks!" Skuld shouted.  
Ranma entered the room, "Hey, guys. What's up?"  
"Stay away from me you evil man!" Skuld shouted at Ranma, "It took me all day to remove all those viruses I found on there. And it's all your fault, all because you wanted to download porno pictures. And speaking of which, you're a pervert for doing so,"  
Ranma grinned, "When was the last time you scanned for viruses on Yggdrasil?"  
"T-that's not the point!" Skuld said, "Those viruses was on there because of you. I know it,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Okay. So what's your point?"  
"Argh!" Skuld shouted, pulling at her hair.  
Urd sighed. She couldn't wait until Ranma was gone. That was why she didn't think twice about sending Ranma back home when he had approached her about being resurrected.

Nene had a big smile on her face as she entered her apartment sometime around one in the morning. This was because Ranma was back and everyone's lives will be much more interesting. He always brought excitement to the table, something that they have not had in over a year.  
She wondered if Jun was the true reason why Ranma came back. He had come back because of a promise he had made to Jun a few years ago. Then again, Ranma was weird so it wouldn't be all that surprising if he did. He was both a complicated and simple individual. Tomorrow was the weekend. She didn't have to work then. She can go over and see Ranma. As much as she wanted to tell him of her feelings to him, she couldn't bring herself to do so shortly after he had arrived. Then again, no one had been able to. They were all so caught up in their happiness to see him again after so long that they realized they forgot to do so well after Ranma had wanted to go to sleep and called it a night.  
Ranma had already assumed the role of leader of the group shortly after his arrival. He had requested a sparring match against Shinji, to see how much he had grown as a fighter since their last encounter. And to everyone's surprise, Shinji eagerly accepted.  
Everyone, very curious to see the fight, was expected to show up at the house at around noontime to watch the sparring match and then head out for lunch afterwards. Everyone was off that day so it was no problem. It was a good distractions from their everyday routine life.  
She sighed.  
She knew exactly what was going to happen tomorrow. Every girl that had any form of feelings for Ranma will be confessing their feelings for him. This was because none of them wanted to miss their opportunity to let it be known how much they cared for him.  
She sighed again. There was no way she could compete against the others. The saying that 'All's fair in love and war' seemed to hold true to those girls, and it sucked.  
Heading into the computer room, Nene wanted to check her email before heading off to sleep. She liked to sleep in late over the weekends so she didn't want to oversleep the sparring session. She was eager to see how well Shinji would do against Ranma and see how much better Shinji had gotten over time. Checking her email, she found out she had none.  
She couldn't help but feel a bit sad every time she checked her email and found out that she had received none. She checked her email often so she found herself constantly being disappointed when she received none.  
Heading toward her bedroom, she noticed the blinking light on her answering machine by the entrance. Clicking on the button, she listened to the message.  
"Hey, it's Yuko," she heard her co-worker's voice, "It's ten right now. I just wanted to call to ask you for a big favor. Can you please work my shift tomorrow? Just call me when you get this message. Thanks,"  
Nene looked at her watch. It was a little past one in the morning and she wondered if she should call Yuko. Also, she didn't really want to fill in for Yuko tomorrow. Perhaps she should just pretend she didn't listen to her answering machine.  
"Damn," Nene said, picking up the phone and dialing in Yuko's number. Nene wasn't that kind of person. If a friend needed her help, then she would help, even if it meant her expected Saturday outing would be cancelled. "Nene?" Yuko answered her phone. Yuko, like Nene, lived on her own so Nene didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up.  
"Yeah," Nene said.  
"Great, you got my message," Yuko said in relief.  
"What's up? You needed me to fill in for you tomorrow?" Nene asked.  
"Yeah," she answered, "An old college friend of mine is having a wedding tomorrow. I got the dates wrong and thought it was on Sunday, when I have off. I used up all of my personal days so I can't get any days off from work to attend. However, the captain said I can take the day off if I can find someone to fill in for my place,"  
"You want me to fill in for you?" Nene asked reluctantly.  
Yuko said, "Yeah. Since you don't really do much on Saturday, I figure you wouldn't mind. Is that okay with you?"  
"But-" Nene began to say.  
"Please!" Yuko begged, "My shift starts at ten in the morning, so if you go to sleep soon, you'll have no problem waking up like you usually do,"  
Nene was silent for several moments, contemplating this. Her friend needed her help, but she also wanted to see Ranma and Shinji spar against one another and head out to lunch with the group.  
"Fine," she said, "I'll do it. Afterall, I can't refuse a friend in need,"  
"Thanks, you're the best!"

Nene had trouble waking up for work early in the morning. It was understandable. She always went to sleep later than she was supposed to so she always had trouble getting up in the morning. Like most people into computers, she usually sat in front of the computer until she got sleepy and went to sleep. Usually, by the time she was sleepy, it was well past the time when she was supposed to have gone to sleep.  
Nene yawned as she went through the morning routine of getting ready. However, she was glad that she didn't need to take an exuberant amount of time getting ready. She was usually out the door and on her way to work within twenty minutes after waking up. However, before she left for work, she called Ranma's house.  
"G'morning," Nene said when Akane answered the phone, "I'm just calling to say I can make it to the sparring session today,"  
"Oh? How come? I did something come up?" Akane asked curiously.  
"Yeah," Nene said, "I have work today. I'm filling in for a co-worker,"  
"Oh, that's unfortunate," Akane said, "When will you be getting off? Since you won't be able to join us for the match or lunch, we can all go to dinner together. I have a funny feeling, now that Ranma's back, all the girls are going to be hanging around all day. You can join us when you get outta work,"  
Nene smiled, "I'd like that. I get off at around seven tonight,"  
"All right," Akane said, "You want us to meet you there at work?"  
"Nah," she said, "I'll be in my work uniform and all. I have to head home and get changed,"  
"So we'll meet you at your place then?" Akane asked.  
Nene looked around her apartment. It was a mess. Ranma had never seen her new apartment before and she didn't want him seeing it in such a state of mess. Even though she was a messy person and everyone knew it, she had gotten much more messy over time. She needed time to clean up if Ranma was going to come visit.  
"There's no need to meet me at my place," Nene said, "However, if you want, I'll call you guys after work and we can all meet at whatever restaurant for dinner. Is that okay?"  
Akane said, "Okay. That sounds like a good idea. Sure," Nene looked at her watch, "Well, I've got to get going. I'm going to be late,"  
"All right," Akane said, "I'll hear from you tonight,"  
"Okay,"

Nene wished she wasn't working now. She was bored and wanted to go home, even if it was only noontime.  
Nene picked at her salad that was her lunch as she sat by herself at her terminal. Although she wasn't supposed to eat on the job, it was her lunch break and no one would complain since everyone knew she could do her job even if she was eating at the moment.  
Right now, she wanted a big fat juicy burger. She didn't want to have to watch what she ate. Her idea of watching what she was eating was to eat in front of a mirror, not eating healthy.  
Nene touched at her stomach, feeling a bit self-conscious of herself. She had a flat stomach at the moment, but she had a funny feeling that she would start getting a tummy if she didn't change the way she ate. She knew she should eat healthier when she found herself a bit out of breath when she ran the short distance from her apartment and to A.D. Police Headquarters.  
"Man, I should start working out," she said to herself, "Maybe I should join Linna's gym,"  
She laughed aloud. If she was going to work out at a gym, it would definitely not be at Linna's gym. That girl always teased Nene about her eating habits. If Nene started working on at her gym, then that was basically a big 'I told you so'.  
Wanting to think about something else, Nene thought about what Ranma and all the girls were doing right now. They were probably having lunch and enjoying each other's company at some fancy restaurant.  
She felt a bit sad that should couldn't be there. She always wondered how many of the girls proclaimed their feelings for Ranma by now. She wouldn't be surprised if all of them had. "Hey, Nene," came a male voice.  
Nene was startled by the voice that she nearly fell out of her chair.  
She quickly swiveled around in her chair and found herself face-to-face with Ranma. "R-R-Ranma! What are you doing here?" she gasped in surprise.  
"I came to see what you were up to," he answered, "Since you had to work today, I figured I drop and see what's up,"  
"How'd you manage to get in here? This is a restricted area," she said, "If you wanted to see me, you were supposed to talk to the receptionist and I would've met you down in the lobby,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess. But I decided it was easier to just visit you at your desk. Heh, I'm glad you still have the same desk from back then. Man, the security of this place is atrocious if I can just waltz right into the heart of A.D. Police Headquarters,"  
"How long were you here?" she asked.  
"Since you made that comment about going to the gym," he smirked, "And why would you wanna do that? You look fine,"  
Nene blushed, "I-I do? Thanks. Um, aren't you supposed to be having lunch?"  
"Yeah, I am," he said, "But I left halfway through to come here and see what's up,"  
"Y-you left just to visit me?" Nene was very surprised to hear that.  
Ranma nodded and grinned, "Yeah, why not? Since when did I care about who'd I offend if I did what I did," "Um, how did the match go?" Nene asked, still blushing.  
"Oh, you mean between me and Shinji?" he asked, "It went fine. Shinji's gotten much better since I last sparred against him, much much better. The school's in good hands with him at the helm,"  
"Shinji beat you?" Nene was very surprised.  
Ranma laughed, "C'mon. Y'gotta gimme some credit. Of course he didn't. He didn't even touch me. I do have decades of experience over him,"  
"Um, I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Nene said, "So, you're not going to take over the school? What do you plan on doing?"  
"Nah, the school's in good hands," Ranma answered, still smiling, "I'm going to help out. I'll just teach from time to time. Shinji can do all the responsible and stressful stuff like paperwork and such,"  
Ranma looked at his watch.  
"I guess I better head back to the restaurant now," he said, "I'm sure everyone's wondering what's taking me so long,"  
"Which restaurant?" Nene asked.  
"Togo's," Ranma said.  
Nene's eyes widened, "Togo's? That's on the other side of MegaTokyo. You came here all the way from over there?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"  
Nene sighed, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised,"  
"Well, I'm gonna head back," he said, "You up to getting dinner tonight with the rest of the gang?"  
Nene nodded.  
"Cool," Ranma said, "I guess I'll see you then,"  
After Ranma said his goodbye and left, Nene couldn't help but feel like her workday wasn't as bad as she thought it was. The fact that Ranma had gone out of his way to come visit her, made her feel even better. She was glad Ranma was back.

new stuff 2/4

Nene got back to her apartment a little past seven in the evening. Done with work, she was expected to call Akane up like she had said.  
Without bothering to check her email, Nene called Akane.  
"Akane, it's Nene," Nene said, glad to have caught Akane, "I'm done with work and I'm calling you like I said I would,"  
"How was work?" Akane asked.  
"It was fine," Nene said, "So, have you and the others decided on where you're all going out to eat dinner tonight? I can meet you guys there,"  
"Um, unfortunately, we won't be going out for dinner tonight," Akane said.  
"Y-you're not?" Nene asked, feeling a sense of disappointment. She had been looking so forward to tonight.  
Akane said, "Luna and Lina came back,"  
"They did?" Nene didn't really know how to react.  
"It's kinda strange, I mean what are the chances that the two of them come visit us the very next day after Ranma's come back," Akane said.  
"So what's going to happen now?" Nene asked.  
"Ranma passed on going out and getting dinner," Akane answered, "He's actually in the backyard right now with Shinji,"  
"With Shinji? What for?" Nene was confused.  
"Ranma and he have begun working at building two new additional rooms to the house. There're going to be two bedrooms. Now that Luna and Lina are here, and here to stay for God knows how long now that they realize Ranma's back, Ranma's decided it was best to expand the house. That way, here won't be problems with them having a place to stay, in case Ryoga ever comes back home. Afterall, who knows when Ryoga would come back home and would want to sleep in his own bedroom. Ranma's basically building a bedroom for young Asuka and another one for both Luna and Lina,"  
"So I guess there'll be no dinner for tonight?" Nene asked reluctantly.  
Akane answered, "No. As a matter of fact, everyone's already gone home. They went home a few hours ago. Ranma's been working on the new addition since around three in the afternoon," "Oh," Nene said sadly.  
"What, have you eaten dinner yet?" Akane asked, "I was about to start preparing dinner for the children and everyone. I can prepare some extra food if you wanna come on over,"  
"Nah, it's all right," Nene said, "I can get some food here at the apartment,"  
"Are you sure?"  
Nene said, "Yeah, I'm sure. It's fine,"  
"All right," Akane said.  
"Um, are you guys doing anything tomorrow?" Nene asked.  
Akane said, "I'm not too sure. I think Ranma's going to be spending all of his time with Shinji working on the new addition to the house. I'll probably go shopping at the mall with Luna for most of the day since Luna seems to have this weird obsession for it,"  
"Oh,"  
"Anyway, I'm sorry our plans fell through and all-" Akane began.  
"Don't worry about it, it's fine," Nene said, "Maybe next week. There's always Friday dinner, right?"  
"Yeah," Akane said, "I guess I'll see you then,"  
"Okay, later," Nene said.  
"Bye,"  
After Nene hung up the phone, she couldn't help but feel a bit sad. It was a Saturday night and it looked like she would not be going out tonight. Once again, like most of her weekends, she would be spending her Saturday night at home.  
Sadly, forgetting that she was supposed to eat, Nene went to her computer room where she would most likely spend the rest of her evening hanging out until she went to bed.

Nene yawned as she woke up at around one in the afternoon on Sunday. Looking at the clock and noticing the time, she was surprised that even she was able to sleep for that long. She had only fallen asleep at around two in the morning so that mean she had slept for around eleven hours.  
To her, That was a lot of time wasted on sleep.  
Walking up to the window and looking outside, Nene wondered what she would do for the rest of the day. It was a very nice day out and she felt like she should go outside. The problem was that she had no idea why she should go outside in the first place. Walking around she considered a waste of time. She would only walk around if there was some place for her to be.  
Nene thought about heading off to the mall. Maybe she might bump into Akane and Luna there. The only problem was that she didn't like the thought of tagging along with the two of them while they most likely went clothes shopping.  
After a short while, she decided that it was probably better to tag along and be bored at the mall instead of being bored at home. Although she had her computer, she only liked spending time in front of her computer late at night. She had this belief that she should always do something else besides sitting in front of her computer, when there is light out. Nene took a shower, needing it to wake herself up.  
She then went about searching for something to wear.  
Funnily enough, she did the 'sniff' test, something guys were notorious for. This was because she rarely did laundry and believed that clothes were only dirty if they smelled really funky. That was definitely something very few females ever did.  
She couldn't help but remember a time about a year ago when Akane was mentioning about that, about how disgusting it was that guys did that. Of course, Nene said nothing simply out of embarrassment. She tended to avoid confrontation and didn't want to be ridiculed.  
She smiled a bit. At least she didn't do things completely like a guy. Guys usually threw their dirty clothes on the floor. She at least neatly piled them on a nearby chair, which made it look as if she simply hadn't gotten around to putting her clothes away in her dresser draws.  
She also didn't wear the same undershirt or underwear more than once. Guys did that, which was absolutely disgusting in her book. No matter how much of a guy-  
like lifestyle she had, there were some things she would never do, that being one of them.  
Before long, she was dressed in a part of jeans and a sweatshirt. She liked wearing jeans. It went along with whatever shirt or blouse she wanted to wear.  
Once dressed, she was out the door and on her way to the mall.

Nene wandered through the mall.  
She only went to the mall about once a week. She only stayed there for around an hour before she would head home. This was because she only checked a couple of stores. She only checked the two bookstores. That was it. There was nothing else there worth checking out. As she headed for one of the bookstores located on one end of the mall, she caught sight of two familiar faces, Shinji and Emiko.  
The two of them were walking ahead of her, hand-in-hand.  
Nene was a bit confused when she saw Shinji. Wasn't he supposed to be working on the house with Ranma? "Shinji?" Nene called out.  
Shinji turned around and was pleasantly surprised when he recognized Nene.  
They three of the greeted each other warmly.  
"Nene," he said, "What brings you here?"  
Nene asked, "I was about to ask you the same thing,"  
Shinji said, "Nothing much. We were just wandering around trying to kill time,"  
"I thought you were supposed to be with Ranma working on the house," Nene commented, "That's what Akane told me. She said you were adding two bedrooms to the house,"  
Shinji nodded, "Yeah, we were. We finished this morning,"  
"F-finished?" Nene's eyes widened, "How could you two have-"  
Shinji smiled, "Ranma did most of the work. It was really cool watching him. He was cutting the wood planks perfectly with well placed chops by his hand. His hand! He was driving nails into the wood using his bare hands,"  
Nene smirked, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Afterall, he did fix that junker of a station wagon a while back in only a day or so. I guess he works really fast,"  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "All that's left is putting up the tiles to the roof. Unfortunately, we can't put that up until tomorrow, because the store won't get the roof tiles that Ranma's looking for until tomorrow,"  
"Oh," Nene said.  
"When everything's finished, Asuka-chan will have her very own bedroom," Shinji commented.  
Asuka-chan was the name that referred to the younger Asuka, to prevent confusion. The Misato, Asuka, and Ritsuko that Shinji brought back from the other world were given the suffix 'chan' since they were, afterall, younger than their counterparts.  
"I'm sure she'll be really happy," Nene commented.  
"Yeah," Shinji said, "Asuka and Asuka-chan look as if they weren't getting along that much. I guess it's the age difference that makes their personality clash. Afterall, to Asuka, Asuka-chan seems like a little child, even if they are the same person,"  
The three of the laughed.  
"Nene, where were you yesterday?" Emiko asked, silent until now.  
"Didn't Akane tell you? I had work," Nene answered.  
Emiko bopped herself on the top of her head, "Oh yeah, she did mention that, didn't she?"  
Shinji gave Emiko a warm smile, "Yeah. You were busy feuding with both Asukas to have heard,"  
Emiko said to Nene, "It's kind of fortunate that you weren't around during lunchtime yesterday,"  
"Oh? How come?" Nene was curious.  
"I don't know what got into everyone, but shortly after everyone sat down and started eating, Misato blurts out how much she was in love with Ranma," Shinji said, "Akane then suddenly blurts that she has feelings. And then Linna. And then Sylia. And then Ritsuko. And then Priss. And the Rei. Rei! And then...well, you get the picture. Before long, basically every girl at the had confessed their love or at least their feelings toward Ranma. It was really really awkward,"  
Nene's lips became a thin line. God, those girls move fast, she thought. She had a funny feeling that it was all just a matter of time before the girls let their feelings be known, but not so soon. "S-so what happened?" Nene asked curiously, "How did he react?"  
Shinji shrugged, "How do I know? I'm not in his shoes. All he did was excuse himself and step outside for a while,"  
Nene wondered if Ranma had come visit her during the time when he had stepped outside. Perhaps, due to all of the chaos caused from all those girls confessing their feelings toward Ranma at the same time, he sought refuge by visiting Nene.  
She dismissed the thought. That was nothing more than wishful thinking on her part. He was only visiting her to kill time and let things cool down back at the restaurant. "So, what brings you here?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.  
Nene said, "I was on my way to the bookstore. I just wanted to see if there's any new computer magazines out,"  
"Well, if you want to check out what new magazines came out, you should check the bookstore by town," Shinji said, "Y'know, the one right by the music shop? I go there every now and then to see if any new boxing magazines came out,"  
Nene nodded, "I know which store you're talking about. I stop by there every here and there also. Unfortunately, the magazine I like they don't carry,"  
"Oh," he said.  
Nene said, "Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone and be on my way,"  
"Okay," Shinji said, "No problem,"  
The three of them said their goodbyes and parted.  
Nene watched as Shinji and Emiko, hand-in-hand, walked off, disappearing among the crowd. Seeing them as a couple made Nene feel a bit envious. Not that she wanted Shinji or anything like that, but seeing him with someone made her realize how much she was not with someone.  
"Nene?" a voice came from behind her.  
Nene turned around and found herself face-to-face with the younger Asuka, Asuka-chan. Nene and the younger Asuka were about the same height. Afterall, Nene was a bit on the short side. What was sad was that the younger Asuka will eventually grow up to be taller than Nene since the other Asuka was taller than her, albeit slightly.  
"Asuka-chan," Nene was surprised.  
"Ah, it is you," Asuka-chan said, "What brings you here?" "I was heading to the bookstore," Nene answered, "How about you?"  
"We were just hanging around," Asuka jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward two individuals standing behind her.  
She also noticed that there were two girls around the same age as Asuka-chan. Asuka-chan introduced them. The two of them turned out to be two of her high school classmates that she bumped into at the mall and had decided to hang out together.  
"Did you see Shinji and Emiko?" Nene asked, "They're here as well,"  
Asuka-chan nodded, "Yeah. I bumped into them earlier,"  
"Okay, just making sure," Nene commented.  
They talked for a few minutes, talking about nothing much in general before they finally parted. When Asuka-chan and her friends disappeared into the crowd of people walking about, Nene felt sad again. Even Asuka-chan, a girl whom had been living here for only a little over a year seemed to have friends to hang out with.

new stuff 2/5

For some odd reason, she thought about a fanfic she had read recently. It would be very nice if random guys, seeing her alone, would approach her and try and strike up a conversation with her. Since that never happened in real life, it made her realize just different real-life was from Fanfiction.  
Of course, fanfics usually had the roles reversed, where the girls usually approached the lead male character. The brand of fanfiction she read had male lead characters. This was because she liked reading action-type crossover stories, not some relationship-building romance-type fanfics. It was merely preference on her part.  
Her life wasn't interesting enough that she would be the lead character in a story. Okay, perhaps there were some interesting things to it, like the fact that she knew Ranma and Shinji, but those two did wondrous things, things that made her secret life as a Knight Saber pale in comparison.  
Besides, that secret part of her life was no more. She didn't need to hang on to that part of her past. Heck, Asuka and Asuka-chan had even let go of the fact that they used to be EVA pilots, and that part of their life meant something extremely important to them.  
Compared to her friends' lives, she believed her life wasn't all that interesting. Nene paused in front of a nutritional store.  
She had been self-conscious of what little weight she had grown and was wondering if she should go on a diet. To a guy, he would think she was crazy to think that. It was only two pounds. To a girl, it meant a whole lot more. It was two more pounds.  
Maybe she should get some kind of weight-loss supplement drink.  
After standing there for a minutes, she decided not to stop inside the store. She didn't want to carry whatever she bought through the mall. God forbid she bumped into someone she knew. Afterall, she had bumped into a few of her friends already.  
She went to the bookstore where she went about checking through the magazine racks. She wasn't looking for any particular magazine. However, when she caught sight a magazine for consumer products review, she decided to pick it up. She always liked reading reviews about all the newest gadgets that came out.  
Glancing toward the side, she saw a young couple sifting through the magazine rack. It looked like they weren't looking for anything in particular to get. Rather, it looked more like they were enjoying each other's company.  
Sighing, Nene decided that she didn't want to be at the mall anymore and bought herself the magazine. She had originally wanted to accidentally bump into Luna and Akane somewhere in the mall, so that she could hang out with them and pass some time. Now that she thought about it, that was a rather crazy plan.  
It made her wonder how many times she was wandering around alone somewhere, like a mall or such, and secretly hoping to bump into one of her friends. More times than she cared to believe. That was for sure. Her stomach rumbled. Not having eaten in a while, it was only natural that her body be requesting food. The funny thing was that Nene, like the majority of the people who wanted to lose weight, was unaware that eating less actually made it harder to lose weight.  
She smirked as she looked down at her stomach. She was a bit surprised when she actually heard her stomach rumbled. That stuff never really happened in real-life. It made her think of a fanfic she had read recently about how a girl was talking to the lead male character about nothing in general and her stomach suddenly rumbling. That lead the lead male character to simply smile and use that as an opportunity to invite the girl out to get some lunch.  
"Man, what a good ice breaker," Nene laughed.  
The funny thing was that, considering the noise of all the people walking about in the mall, even if her stomach did rumble, no one would hear it. And even if the area was quiet, it wasn't as if she was talking to someone like Ranma at that point in time. As she was about to exit the bookstore, she caught sight of Ranma entering. Because the magazine racks were located near the front portion of the wall and the cashier counter farther back, Ranma hadn't noticed her while she him.  
"R-Ranma," she said softly, her heart starting to race.  
What were the chances that she would bump into Ranma in a place like this. Ranma never read so it was very odd that he would be in a bookstore. The only time he ever read was when he was on the toilet. But then again, that was probably the only time any guy ever read, when they were going to the bathroom.  
She stayed where she was for a short while, merely observing him.  
Her eyes widened when she caught sight of him pull from the rack an adult magazine. Her mouth became wide as she watched Ranma ostentatiously skim through the magazine. She noticed he made no attempt to be more discreet about what he was skimming through.  
It made her a bit more self-conscious about herself because she realized she would never look like the girls that he seemed to favor in those adult magazines. Those damn adult magazines and model magazines were usually what made insecure females feel even more insecure, because it created a standard in beauty they would never be able to achieve.  
She noticed Ranma turn toward the couple that was by the magazine that Nene observed earlier. He said something toward the guy but had no idea what he had said. A second later, the guy, taking his girlfriend's hand in his, left the store.  
When they were gone, Ranma put the magazine back and proceeded to look through the portion of the magazine rack where the couple had originally been standing. Ranma started laughing silently to himself.  
Nene swallowed the lump in her throat as she approached Ranma. She had no idea what she was going to say to him. "Ranma," she said.  
Ranma turned toward her, "Hey, Nene. How're you doing?"  
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said nervously.  
"How was work?" he asked, "Sorry about what happened last night. Akane told me about how you called last night wondering what everyone was up to. I didn't mean to get your hopes up about getting together for dinner and all. Sorry 'bout that,"  
Nene waved a dismissive hand, "Oh, it's fine. Um, I ate at home anyway,"  
"That's good to hear," Ranma said. "Um, what brings you here?" she asked. She wondered how long it would be before they would have nothing much else to talk about and would have to part. Then again, with Ranma, it was really easy to keep talking to him since he was naturally easy to talk to.  
Ranma gestured toward the magazine rack in front of himself and said, "I came to get some home improvement magazines. There was this couple I asked to move because I wanted to look at some magazine they were standing in front of but they didn't so I grabbed some adult magazine and started showing pictures to the guy to make him uncomfortable and leave, which they did,"  
Nene said, "Nan, you're bad,"  
Ranma grinned, "Hey, I ain't no saint,"  
"So, you're here for home improvement magazines, huh?" she asked.  
"Akane told ya about how Shinji and I were building new additions to the house, right?" he asked, "Well, we've yet to put in the roof tiles. We'll be puttin' it in sometime tomorrow. Dunno when though. I've never done that stuff before so I'm here to get some magazines about how to do it correctly,"  
"I heard about the roof from Shinji," she commented, "I bumped into Shinji and Emiko. They're here in the mall as well. I even bumped into Asuka-chan, too,"  
Ranma nodded, "I bumped into Shinji and Emiko, too. They were wandering around. I didn't see Asuka-chan though,"  
"Okay,"  
There was a moment of awkward silence as Nene tried to think of what to say.  
"Hey, ya hungry?" Ranma asked from out of the blue, "I'm hungry and was gonna get something to eat. Wanna come eat with me?"  
"Um, s-sure,"

Nene and Ranma were waiting in line to be seated. They had decided to eat at one of the mall restaurants. Nene couldn't help but feel happy. The two of them were together, like a couple. Sure, they weren't holding hands or so, but it didn't mean that random people might mistaken them for a couple.  
Ranma seemed oblivious of that. He also seemed oblivious of the obligatory glances females cast in his direction.  
"Um, so, how do you like it here, now that you're back?" Nene asked, trying to make conversation, "You've been gone for over a year,"  
Ranma said, "Not much's changed. I'm really surprised how far along Shinji has come. He's turning out to be a fine young man. I'm a bit sad that he quit school, but hey, sometimes school isn't for everyone,"  
"I was surprised when Shinji dropped out of college about a year ago," Nene said, "He's really smart and it seems like quite a waste,"  
Ranma shrugged, "But he's doing what he loves, teaching martial arts. As long as he's happy, I guess there's nothing to worry about. Heck, considering how much the school's grown, he's probably doing better than a huge majority of the people who've gone to college,"  
Nene's lips became a thin line. She had gone to college. And it was true that Shinji was better off than her. Heck, Ranma never even finished high school and he was doing better in society than her. He had his own house and business. In a sense, neither Ranma nor Shinji ever needed to worry about money and they never finished college. If she thought about it, Nene was actually the least successful of the group. Asuka, Asuka-chan, and Rei were exceptions since they were busy with receiving their education. Before long, the two of them were seated in a small booth near the back of the restaurant. When the waitress came by, eyeing Ranma longer than Nene wanted to allow, they ordered their meals.  
"I'll take the left side of this menu," Ranma said.  
"Um, okay," the waitress was surprised. She turned toward Nene, "And for you, ma'am?"  
"I'll just take a big salad," Nene said, "No dressing please,"  
"Okay," the waitress left.  
Nene sighed. She felt old. The waitress had said ma'am when referring to her. "Somethin' the matter?" Ranma asked curiously.  
"Nothing really," she said after a moment, "The waitress called me ma'am,"  
"So?" Ranma asked.  
"It makes me feel old," Nene sighed.  
Ranma shrugged, "Well, you ain't all that young,"  
"Ranma," Nene's eyes widened, shocked at Ranma's tactlessness.  
Ranma held his hands up defensively, "Hey, don't misunderstand,"  
"How am I to misunderstand?" she narrowed her eyes, "You just said that I was old,"  
"You're older," Ranma tapped his head, "Mentally. Physically, you're young,"  
"Gee, like that makes me feel any better," Nene slumped down in her seat. Ranma laughed aloud.  
"What?" she asked.  
"How old do you think you are?" he asked.  
Nene's eyes widened, "I can't believe you would ask me for my age!"  
"You're not as old as you think," Ranma said.  
"What do yo mean?" she was confused. "When Urd resurrected you and everyone else, you were resurrected younger than you think you are," he said, "To put things in perspective, even though, mentally, I'm probably around a hundred years old, physically, I'm much much much younger than that. I don't know if you know this, but Urd actually resurrected everyone around much younger than they really were when you were all killed,"  
"What?" Nene's eyes widened.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. In a sense, much like myself, your age on paper and in computer databases is no longer accurate to the age you physically are right now,"  
Nene was silent.  
Ranma grinned, "What, you haven't noticed that you look much younger now than before?"  
"No," Nene said.  
Ranma tapped his index finger on her nose, "Well, you should check a mirror more often,"  
"Well, I have noticed that everyone did seem a bit younger," Nene commented, "But I figured it was just some kinda facial cream they were using,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Lettme get this straight...you've noticed they look younger. And for over a whole year, you never bothered to ask? It never occurred to you that everyone was brought back younger than they usually were?"  
Nene gave a shy smile, "No,"  
Ranma laughed aloud.

new stuff 2/12

Ranma and Nene were served their meal shortly afterwards. Ranma grinned as he looked at his massive order of food. He had ordered so much food that the waitress had to set up one of those makeshift tables so the rest of the orders to rest on top of it.  
"Salad, huh?" Ranma smirked, "You never used to eat salad,"  
Nene was a bit surprised about this. She never used to eat salad. Ranma noticed that about her? He actually paid her enough attention to remember that detail? Then again, Ranma was very observant and things rarely, if ever, escaped his notice.  
Nene said, "I need to watch what I'm eating. I need to lose weight,"  
She blushed when she said that. She couldn't believe she had actually said that aloud. Sure, she was comfortable around Ranma, but she never figured she would get so comfortable around him that she would blurt out one of her insecurities.  
Ranma gave Nene a curious look, as if scrutinizing her.  
"W-what?" Nene asked, nervously, not used to the attention he was paying her.  
Ranma said, "You, need to lose weight? Y'look fine to me,"  
"Um, thanks," Nene said, knowing Ranma was only saying it to be nice. For a person as observant as Ranma, it was obvious that he had noticed she had gained a slight bit of weight.  
Ranma went about eating his meal, Nene observing him for a moment before proceeding to eat her salad. As she ate, she was curious as to what Shinji had said earlier when she bumped into him, about how basically all of the girls confessed their feelings for Ranma yesterday. She was curious as to how Ranma reacted to what had happened.  
"Um, y'know how I bumped into Shinji earlier?" Nene began.  
"Uh huh, what about it?" he asked.  
She paused for a moment.  
"Um, he said something about what happened yesterday," she began, "About how all the girls came out and told you their feelings..."  
"Yeah," he said, "And all of 'em basically at once. The only people that didn't say anything were Misato-chan, Asuka-chan, and Ritsuko-chan. Of course, that's understandable because they have no idea who I am since they're here because of Shinji, not me,"  
Nene asked, "What did you think about that, about them confessing..." Ranma didn't seem to hesitate for a moment before saying, "I didn't like it,"  
"Y-you didn't?" Nene was surprised, "I-I figure you'd at least be flattered,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I'm flattered and all, but it made for a very awkward situation,"  
"How so?" she asked.  
"Well, you're the first person I'm telling this to," Ranma began, "I'm not interested in settling down or having a girlfriend or getting married,"  
"W-why not?" she asked. She had a funny feeling that that was the case with him, but neither she, nor anyone else, knew why.  
Ranma shrugged, "No real reason. Just a preference I guess. I guess it's something I've grown to like since long ago,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I don't hafta answer to anyone about what I do," he smiled, "And I've gotten used to it and've grown to like it,"  
"T-that's the reason why you never got in a relationship?" Nene asked.  
"More or less," he said.  
Nene found herself unable to say anything. She had been wanting and trying to steel herself to let it be known to Ranma that she was in love with him, but considering his reaction to everyone having confessed their feelings to him, she figured it was best to not say anything instead.  
"Ranma. Nene," came a voice.  
Nene and Ranma looked up from their meal and found themselves looking up at Luna and Akane. The two girls had spotted the two of them through the front of the restaurant and had decided to approach them as they ate.  
"Hey, guys," Ranma greeted them, "What brings you here?"  
"We were shopping and spotted the two of you," Akane said warmly, gesturing toward a bag she and Luna each had.  
Ranma glanced at the bag but didn't seem all that interested in knowing what was in it since he already assumed it was clothes.  
"We were just having some lunch together," Ranma gestured toward Nene.  
"Can we join you?" Akane asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "It's okay by me. How about you, Nene? Ya mind if they join us?"  
Nene quickly said, "Not at all,"  
She couldn't help but feel a bit sad that Akane and Luna would be joining them. For a brief moment, it had felt like she and Ranma had been on a date. Now that Akane and Luna were there, that would no longer be the case.  
Before she knew it, Akane and Luna started talking to Ranma and he them.  
Quietly, she sat in the background and ate her meal, too shy to say anything. Perhaps it was because, unlike back then, this was merely a conversational situation.  
It made her realize that, unless there was a reason for her to talk, she was unlikely to indulge in conversation. She had trouble talking about nothing, which was basically the exact opposite as what the other girls seem to be able to do with ease. She wanted to do something about that, but she had no real idea how.

"What happened to your bracers?" Nene noticed, "You took them off,"  
Ranma smirked, "Wow, you noticed,"  
"Huh?"  
"You're the first person that noticed I took them off," he commented, "I took them off yesterday but no one seems to have noticed it or at least said something about it,"  
Nene blushed slightly. Ranma and Nene were standing outside A.D. Police Headquarters. It was Tuesday, two days since they had bumped into each other at the mall. She had actually seen Ranma walking around two yesterday but had never bothered to stop and talk to him, unable to think of a good reason to simply walk up to him and talk to him. Today, she saw him walking around once again but noticed that he wasn't wasn't wearing his bracers, a good enough reason to stop him in the streets and talk to him.  
"Shinji and I sparred earlier and he wanted to see how fast I really was," Ranma said, rubbing at his bare forearms, "And since the bracers weighed around a thousand pounds each and slowed me down considerably, taking them off made me significantly faster," "T-thousand pounds?" Nene's eyes widened. She knew about Shinji wearing a weighted vest long ago, because of Ranma, but she never knew Ranma wore weighted bracers.  
Ranma nodded, "Well, not many people know about it. Sometimes, even I forget I was wearing them. Man, it would've been really nice had I remembered to take them off when fighting those Angels that were attacking this world. I would've kicked their asses all at the same time,"  
He chuckled slightly. Nene didn't know if he was telling the truth or not.  
He shrugged, "Well, maybe not all at once, but back then, had I remembered to take them off, I would've been easily able to defeat them one-on-one, that's for sure,"  
"Now that you took them off, how did the fight with Shinji go?" Nene asked, already knowing the answer.  
Ranma shrugged, "Same as usual. He wasn't able to hit me when I was wearing the bracers, let alone with them off. Heck, even after I beefed him up, he still couldn't touch me,"  
"Beefed him up?" Nene asked, "What, you gave him some kind of pep talk?"  
Ranma laughed. It was a hearty laugh, something that sounded very nice to Nene. It was rare to hear Ranma simply laugh and she had made him laugh several times already.  
Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll, "I found this scroll. It's a scroll that shows you Martial Arts Calligraphy,"  
"Martial Arts Calligraphy?" Nene was confused.  
"It's this weird art that can unlock a fighter's potential," Ranma said, "All you need to do is paint a stupid looking face on the fighter's stomach and he becomes basically astronomically better than what he was originally. I remember, when we were young, Ryoga had the same face drawn on his stomach and fought against him. Man, let's just say it was no easy task beating him,"  
Nene was silent.  
"I also found this recipe for Super Soba Noodles," Ranma said, pulling out another scroll, "I used that on Shinji also,"  
"What's that do?" she asked.  
"I gives whoever who eats the noodles...um...oodles of power," Ranma smirked, "Get it? Noodles? Oodles?"  
Nene gave a shy smile. That was the stupidest joke she had ever heard. "How do you make these Super Soba Noodles?" Nene asked curiously.  
Ranma said, "It's really funny how these noodles are made. All you do is make regular soba noodles like normal. However, you need to add in one table spoon of any clear soda in the broth. Pretty messed up, huh?"  
Nene scratched her head, "Let me get this straight. If I make soba noodles, and add one table spoon of a clear soda in the broth, eating it will make me super strong?"  
He smiled, "Yeah, pretty messed up, huh?"  
"That's insane," Nene said.  
"Of course," Ranma grinned, "It's so easy it's ridiculous. Of course, we don't have super strong people because, basically, who the heck would ever think to do something like that?"  
"Obviously," Nene said, wondering if she should give Super Soba Noodles a try.  
Ranma seemed to read her mind, "However, there is one side effect,"  
"Damn, and what's that?" Nene asked, knowing that there had to be a catch.  
"Impotence," Ranma said.  
"What? And you gave that to Shinji?" Nene's eyes widened.  
Ranma shook his head, "No, it isn't true, but seeing Shinji's reaction after he took it was worth a million yen,"  
"So what's the real side-effect?" she had to ask.  
"Facial hair," Ranma said, "Like that of a beard and mustache if you don't shave,"  
Nene was silent for a moment, "That's not a bad side-effect,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Fine, you go take some of those Super Soba Noodles then. See how you girls would like it if you hafta shave daily like most guys,"  
"Hm, I guess you have a point," Nene said.  
Ranma scratched his head, "What's strange is that I remember the old letch, Happousei made those...so why didn't he ever make them after his first bowl was accidentally eaten by Akane?"  
"Huh?"  
"Nevermind," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Anyway, when Shinji ate those, he got super strong. Probably strong enough to rival my strength now. I doubt he could rival Ryoga's strength. Ryoga's too stupid to know what's considered too heavy to life,"  
Nene looked around, expecting Ryoga to suddenly appear out of nowhere and punch Ranma in the face. To her and Ranma's surprise, Ryoga never showed up.  
"Shinji was still unable to hit you?" Nene asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. He didn't hit me even once. Heck, he didn't even manage to get in close enough grab on to my shirt once in an attempt throw,"  
"Wow, you're amazing," Nene was in awe.  
"Yeah, I'm the man," Ranma grinned.  
Nene narrowed her eyes, "Nevermind. I take that back,"  
Ranma laughed again.  
Nene looked at the scrolls in Ranma's hands, "Now, exactly where did you find those scrolls?"  
"I don't know," he said, scratching his head, "For some odd reason, I conveniently found them. As to where, I have no real idea nor any recollection of exactly when or how or why," Nene gave Ranma an odd look.  
After a while, she took it as a given.  
"So, did you eat the noodles and put whatever face drawing on your stomach like you did for Shinji?" Nene had to ask.  
Ranma grinned, "Yeah, I took the noodles, but I didn't put that ugly looking drawing on my stomach. That stuff's permanent,"  
Nene's eyes widened, "So are you saying that Shinji now has a permanent tattoo on his stomach?"  
He shook his head, "No. It magically goes away if you beat him. And since I beat him, it's no longer on him. However, after it disappeared, I put another one on him but on a different location,"  
"A different location? Where?" she asked.  
Ranma raised his shirt sleeve to expose his right arm. On there, right by his bicep, was a small dot.  
"You see?" he asked.  
"See what? All I see is a pin-sized dot," Nene said, wondering if that was a birthmark.  
Ranma nodded, "That's it. That's the mark. After I read through the scroll completely, it turns out that putting a dot on your right arm gives the same effects as that of a happy-face on one's stomach,"  
"This is crazy," Nene commented.  
Ranma smiled, "Right. The funny thing is that after eating those Super Soba Noodles and putting that mark on, I find myself actually weaker and slower than before. Kinda weird, huh?"  
Nene didn't know what to say.  
"I guess it's kinda like doing stuff like my working out and getting big muscles," Ranma said, "It's actually detrimental in my case,"  
"Let's just change the subject," Nene said, already confused, "All that you're telling me is making my head spin,"  
"Okay," Ranma said, "Whatcha wanna talk about?"  
"Well, first of all, how do you like being back?" she had been meaning to ask when she was eating some lunch with him in the restaurant the other day at the mall but hadn't been able to when Luna and Akane showed up and basically crashed the date, if one could call it a date.  
Ranma shrugged, "It's okay. However, I find myself itching to go on another adventure,"  
"After all that you've been through, you want to go through more?" Nene gasped, "Are you some kind of masochist?"  
Ranma smirked, "I guess I'm not the kind that can stay in one place for long. I like constantly being on the go, and adventuring is probably the best thing to do, especially if I go to another world and do so,"  
"Have you?" Nene asked, "You've been gone for over a year,"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I've been to a couple of different worlds already. When I was done with that world, I went back to Heaven where I would go out on another adventure,"  
Nene smiled, "You really like adventures, don't ya?"  
"It's something to keep me busy," he said, "Otherwise, I'd get bored with daily life,"  
Nene couldn't help but know exactly what Ranma meant by that. She found herself bored and wanting some excitement in her life, not so much like some adventure to save the world, but anything remotely exciting. Ranma's idea of daily excitement was way beyond her and anyone else's tolerance of excitement for a lifetime.  
Ranma's eyes lit up, "Hey, let's go on an adventure together,"  
"W-what?" Nene stammered, shocked at the suggestion.  
"Yeah, why not?" he grinned, "It'd be fun. We can go to some world and mess it up really good and let Urd worry about the consequences,"  
"Mess up a world?" Nene narrowed her eyes, "Why the heck would you want to do that?"  
Ranma smirked, "Why not? I seem to have a knack for it. Why bother trying to stop the inevitable,"  
Nene sighed.  
"Besides," he added, "Dontcha feel good after you save a world or at least prevent it from going down the tubes?"  
"I'm sorry, but I don't have 'save a world' on my to-do list like you do," Nene commented, "My to-do list is usually, go to work, check email, go to sleep, and repeat. Throw in eating meals in between those tasks while you're at it. I feel happy when I go on to a particular web page and find out it's been updated with new stories. My standards for being happy seem to be a lot lower than yours,"  
"Didn't you like being a Knight Saber?" Ranma asked, "Didntcha find that exciting?"  
"Of course I found that exciting," Nene said, "It was very exciting. But don't forget, that was around fifteen years ago. I'm older now and have moved on. I'm not as young as I used to be,"  
"Actually..." he began.  
"You know what I mean," she said, "It's like you going back to your past and dealing with whatever antics and trouble you had to deal with then. What might have been exciting is actually very anticlimactic," "I guess you have a point," Ranma said, scratching his head, "I was kinda disappointed fighting against Happousei and utterly demolishing him. Plus, I was easily able to deal with whatever situations were thrown at me, something I was barely able to do back when I was young,"  
"Exactly," she stated, "So you get my point,"  
Ranma smirked, "You know what that means, right?"  
"What?" she gulped, noticing the odd twinkle in his eyes.  
"We go to a totally different world," he grinned.  
Ranma snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a bluish portal opened up right before them. Before Nene could protest, Ranma picked her up and jumped right into the portal.

In a world that was every bit real as it was virtual, a young-looking woman ran through the pouring rain as she ran down a alleyway, hot on the trail of her target. She looked to be somewhere in her late twenties. However, even though she looked to be around that age, she was far older. In a sense, she was a bit like Ranma, her outward appearance hiding the fact that she was far older than indicated.  
Motoko Kusanagi, also known as 'Major' to her colleagues, was in the middle of a foot chase after the entity known as Net-Master. Her target looked like a human wearing a black trench coat, but she knew otherwise. He was nothing more than an android that possessed Net-Master's ghost, or soul as humans refer to it, and she didn't want him to get away. She had been after Net-Master for over ten years and she was finally going to catch him.  
Unfortunately, just before she was able to lunge forward and tackle him and bring the chase to a final end, a blue portal opened up right suddenly in the space between her and her target. Before she was able to react, two figures stepped forward from the portal and right in front of her.  
Since she was running at full speed, she was unable to avoid those two individual.  
The moment Ranma, still holding Nene, stepped through the portal, he saw something come rushing toward him. With lightning speed reaction, Ranma tightened his hold on Nene and jumped over the approaching figure.  
The shock of seeing something like that suddenly happen caught her off guard. Despite her superior augmented body, she still possessed a somewhat human mind which sometimes made human mistakes.  
The shock made her trip over her own feet where she ended up tumbling on the ground and crashed into a nearby heap of garbage bag. "Oh shit," Ranma said.  
He placed Nene down on her feet. Nene, disoriented with what was going on, stayed right where she was, as Ranma rushed over to where Motoko was.  
"You okay?" he asked.  
Motoko didn't bother answer as she quickly got up to her feet and ran down the alleyway, in the same direction as her target had gone down. When she emerged from the alleyway and into the street, she scanned the nearby area, looking for clues as to where her target had gone.  
"You okay?" Ranma asked her again, walking up behind her.  
"Fuck!" she shouted when she noticed her target was long gone. She punched at the wall of a nearby building, her fist creating a small hole in the wall. She didn't even know if her target had turned left or right after he had emerged from the alleyway.  
Ranma regarded Motoko's back for a moment. He couldn't help but notice that the woman had a hairstyle that reminded him of Akane's late-sister, Nabiki. However, this girl had black hair and an aura of authority to her.  
Nene tried to take in her surroundings as she tried to figure out where she was. All she knew was that she was wet and that it looked as if they were in some kind of alleyway. She glanced over toward Ranma as she saw him reach out and place a hand on that girl's shoulder "You okay?" Ranma asked.  
Ranma was concerned for the girl. She had taken a nasty spill and it was most likely because of him. He wanted to make sure that she was okay. If she wasn't, he would be more than happy to help her out and get her some medical attention.  
Motoko, very frustrated, turned her attention toward Ranma, the man that had prevented her from bringing a ten-year-long case to a final close. Not liking to be touched, she grabbed Ranma's extended arm and twisted it violently.  
She wanted to vent her frustrations and perhaps break the man's arm, just to show him how pissed off she was.  
Ranma was surprised when he suddenly found himself flipping head over heels. However, due to his superior training, he ended up landing on his feet again and countered that obvious attempted takedown.  
Landing on his feet, his body reacted before his mind could. His free hand bolted forward as he grabbed Motoko by her neck and shoved her backwards where he basically slammed her against the wall of the building she had punched.  
Ranma's lightning speed caught Motoko off-guard. Never had she seen someone move so fast. Of course, she had been unaware of Ranma's training, that he let his body react instead of his brain. That was the main reason why he was so fast, because having the mind make the body do something was significantly slower than having the body do what it wanted. It eliminated the middle-man that was that brain.  
"Ranma," Nene rushed forward, wondering what was going on.  
Ranma suddenly let go Motoko when he realized what he had done, "Um, sorry about that. I didn't mean it. Are you okay?"  
Motoko rubbed at her neck slightly as she eyed Ranma intently. Her augmented eyes scanned him. To her surprise, she was unable to detect a single cybernetic part on his entire body. What surprised her even more was that she was unable to detect if he was even human. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice icy cold.  
"I'm Ranma Saotome. That's Nene Romanova," he said, "What's your name?"  
"Have you any idea what you just did?" she said, wanting to rip him a new asshole for making her lose her target.  
"Hey, I told you my name," Ranma said, "What's your name?"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes before she said, "Motoko Kusanagi,"  
"Nice to meetcha," Ranma said, "So, what did I do?"  
Motoko sighed, "Nevermind. It's not your concern,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Okay. Um, are you okay? You took a nasty spill,"  
"I'm fine," she said, a bit annoyed with herself. She didn't like making mistakes. That was a human flaw that she wanted to get rid of.  
"Well, I'm glad you're okay. It was nice meeting you," Ranma said, as if he was dismissing her, her of all people.  
She watched as Ranma turned his attention toward Nene. She couldn't help but be very suspicious of that man. He moved faster than anything she had ever seen. He also appeared out of nowhere, like he had been using one of those thermoptic camouflage suits. And who was that girl that was with him. Scanning her, Motoko realized the girl was human. Motoko did a quick search for 'Ranma Saotome' on the Internet. It was very easy for her to search the Internet since access to it was actually hardwired to her brain. After a few seconds of searching around, the name came up empty.  
"Who are you?" she asked again.  
Ranma turned to face her, "Huh?"  
"What's your real name?" she asked, very sure he was using some alias.  
Ranma looked confused, "You lost me,"  
"If you're not going to cooperate, I'm going to arrest you," Motoko said, "Who are you really?"  
Ranma laughed, "Arrest me? That's a riot,"  
"What?" Motoko was taken aback.  
Ranma crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Tellme, what did I do wrong?"  
"Plenty," she stated.  
Ranma turned around and toward Nene, "Nene, let's get going. I hate this stuff. Not one minute after coming here, I'm already stepping in some serious shit,"  
"Um, o-okay," Nene said, eyeing Motoko intently.  
Nene couldn't help but be very fascinated with Motoko. She could tell that Motoko was a woman of authority, like that of a policewoman if not of a higher rank. In a sense, they were kind of like the same people.  
"Where do you think you're going?" Motoko said, "I haven't finished talking to you,"  
"Go to sleep," Ranma said.  
He reached out and touched Motoko's sleep pressure point, three points on her right breast. However, after grabbing it, he found himself a bit surprised when he noticed Motoko didn't suddenly fall down to the ground asleep.  
Motoko's eyes widened as she suddenly realized she was being groped.  
Ranma proceeded to knead her breast, "Hm, I know I pressed the right points,"  
"You fuck!" losing her cool composure as she tried to slap Ranma in the face really hard. To her surprise, Ranma used his other hand to intercept it, his hand closing around her small but powerful forearms. She was stopped dead in her tracks.  
"Ah, now I know why you don't go to sleep," Ranma looked actually happy, "It's because you're a boomer,"  
"What?" Motoko said.  
"You're a machine, am I right?" Ranma asked.  
Motoko was confused. She didn't like being confused or not in control of a situation. Right now was one of them.  
Ranma let go of Motoko and said, "Look, sorry about that. I had accidentally mistaken you for human. But since you're not, the sleep pressure point doesn't work so it seemed like I was just groping ya,"  
Ranma looked at his hand. He couldn't help notice that Motoko's boomer body was remarkably realistic. Perhaps she had the body of a sexaroid. That would explain quite a bit. Motoko continued to regard Ranma, as if expecting him to say more.  
Ranma then smiled.  
"Can we go now?"  
Ranma was grinning as he and Nene, both handcuffed with their arms behind their back, were being down the street toward a waiting patrol car down the block. By now, the rain had stopped.  
Nene looked worried, "I can't believe it. I've been arrested. Not only did I not want to be here, but I was arrested just a few minutes after showing up,"  
"Don't worry, if you don't wanna role play anymore, I'll just break us out," he smiled, "Just give me the word,"  
"And just how do you expect to 'break out' as you so put it?" Motoko smirked, a hand on both Ranma's and Nene's arms.  
"I'm a police woman," Nene pleaded toward Motoko, "Just check my identification. I have a badge and all,"  
"Never heard of A.D. Police before," Motoko stated, "And my search for it came up blank. Basically, you and your boyfriend here are liars,"  
Nene blushed a deep shade of red, "B-boyfriend?"  
Ranma continued to grin, "Y'hear that? This chick thinks we're a couple,"  
Nene continued to blush as Ranma continued to smile, enjoying role playing.  
"I suggest you wipe that grin off your face," Motoko said in a cold voice, "Before I wipe it off for you, the hard way,"  
Ranma didn't seem one bit intimidated by the threat.  
"You do know these handcuffs are useless on me, right?" Ranma asked.  
Motoko smirked, "Right, whatever you say,"  
Ranma spread his arms apart as the handcuffs securing his wrists suddenly broke. This shocked even Motoko, a person rarely shocked since she had basically seen quite a lot over her long life. Perhaps it was because she was witnessing Ranma breaking handcuffs capable of securing even the strongest cybernetic bodies created, and with relative ease.  
"See?" Ranma grinned.  
Motoko reached for her weapon, a modified revolver, and pointed it toward Ranma's chest as she took a step back. However, Ranma made no sudden motions toward her nor any indication of even caring about having a gun pointed.  
Ranma looked at the barrel of the gun. After a moment, he seemed to lose interest, "Go ahead an shoot me. Even if that gun packs the punch of a positron rifle, it won't even tickle,"  
Motoko, believing in the philosophy of 'shoot first, ask questions later', lowered her gun toward Ranma's leg and pulled the trigger. However, before the bullet was able to traverse the distance from the chamber and into Ranma's leg, Ranma shifted his leg slightly. The bullet missed his leg and ended up ricocheting off the sidewalk and hitting a nearby garbage can.  
She re-aimed her gun again, bringing it up toward his chest, and pulled the trigger. However, this time around, Ranma caught the bullet. She fired a couple more times, those caught as well.  
"You mind?" Ranma said in annoyance, "Who the heck are you anyway? You seem like some kinda cop chick, but not. Considering how you don't know me and are firing a gun at me, it's obvious you're dangerous. I oughta find your off switch and flip it,"  
"Why you!" she shouted.  
Ranma dashed forward with lightning speed. Once again, Motoko was unable to react. In one swift motion, Ranma grabbed Motoko's gun and yanked it out of her taut grip, squeezing it and breaking the weapon at the same time. He quickly grabbed her, sweeping her up off her feet, and tucked her under one of his arms. Because of the way he was holding her, she was unable to do anything but struggle. This was because both of her arms were bounded to her side, her back pressed against Ranma's side which prevented her from being able to kick him. As flexible as she was, not even a contortionist could kick him, given the way she was being held.  
Ranma, still holding Motoko, unbothered by Motoko swearing and struggling under his one arm, proceeded to in the direction of the patrol car.  
"Let go of me!" Motoko shouted toward him, "I'm going to kill you!"  
Several pedestrians stopped to see what all the commotion was. When they saw Ranma carrying Motoko, they didn't really do much but stare.  
"Don't worry," Ranma said glibly, "She's my, um, my little sister. She hangs out with bad people and doesn't wanna go home. Y'know how big brothers gotta be sometimes,"  
All the watching pedestrians seemed to nod in agreement, totally understanding what Ranma meant.  
"Ha ha," Ranma said to Motoko, "They believe me,"  
Nene blindly followed Ranma as he walked up to the obvious patrol car. Although it looked nothing like the kind of cars he was used to seeing, what with it looking far more advanced, it shared the colors of common police cars that was on his world.  
Walking up to the police car, Ranma looked inside. He was a bit shocked at all the electronics inside surrounding the dashboard.  
"Wow, look at all that junk in this thing," Ranma commented.  
Looking in, Nene found herself recognizing several pieces of equipment. It looked different from the stock equipment in the patrol car she sometimes had to drive from time to time.  
Ranma tried to open the car door. Of course, it was locked.  
"What do you intend to do?" Motoko asked in a cold voice, wanting to stall him. She had already sent out a call for backup from her partner in crime, Bateau, via internal communication. Because her brain was hardwired to the Internet, she could securely communicate with others also hardwired, that being her partner and everyone in the division she worked with.  
"I'm gonna throw you in the trunk," Ranma said, "But first, I need to pop the trunk,"  
Ranma jammed his fingers through the car window and reached inside. He opened the door from the inside. However, when he actually tried to open the door, it didn't really move. A bit annoyed he put a bit more strength into opening it than he realized, resulting in ripping the door right off its hinges.  
"Um, I think this car's doors open upwards, not like that of a car you're used to," Nene commented. After a moment, she added, "Well, I guess now that you ripped the car door off, I guess that's moot,"  
Ranma gave a meek smile, "I think you're right,"  
Motoko continued to struggle while taking in information. To her, the guy seemed to be all brawn and no brain. She had nothing on the girl so she had nothing to go by.  
Still holding Motoko, he peeked into the car and looked around for the latch that would pop the trunk. He found it after a short moment.  
"Cool, it seems like even though this car is different from ones I'm use to, it's design is relatively the same and fundamental,"  
Walking around to the back of the car, he threw Motoko inside the trunk and closed it on her. He punched a few holes on the trunk, so Motoko would have some air, in case the trunk was air tight.  
"I know it's gonna be embarrassing, but someone'll come along and help ya out," Ranma said, leaning over and speaking into one of the holes.  
As he did so, one of Motoko's slender arms darted out from the hole, fingers straight in the form of a knife-hand, as if she was trying to jam her fingers right into Ranma's head. However, Ranma leaned back as he saw the attempted attack.  
He stepped back as he saw the trunk slowly denting upwards from the inside. It only took a moment for him to realize that Motoko was trying to punch and kick her way out of the trunk from within.  
"C'mon, let's go get some food before she gets out," Ranma turned toward Nene, Nene, feeling as if everything was surreal at the moment, said, "Um, okay,"  
Ranma and Nene proceeded down the street as pedestrians stared in confusion. One of them even said something.  
"What kinda brother does that to his little sister?"

Ranma and Nene were walking down the street, drinking in their surroundings. Motoko was no where to be seen. "This world is incredible," Nene commented, forgetting that she wanted to be back on her home world, "It's so technologically advanced,"  
"Yeah, if you think about it, this world is much like our world," Ranma stated, "It's probably what our world will be a couple hundred years down the line,"  
Nene looked about, "Are you sure most of the people walking about are cybernetic? They look completely human,"  
"Yeah,"  
"Wow, I'm really eager to see how advanced their computers are," Nene commented, "Ritsuko forwarded our world's technology quite a bit by incorporating her knowledge of MAGI with that world's technology. However, I've got the funny feeling that whatever computers that exist on this world, blows away our world's most powerful computer,"  
Ranma nodded, "That's for sure,"  
"How come you chose to bring us to this world, at this particular time?" Nene asked.  
Ranma said, "I only know about what's gonna happen on this world. I dunno much about this world,"  
"What going to happen?" Nene asked, curious. She had no intention on taking part and playing an active role on this world.  
"In a short while from now, all hell's gonna break loose," Ranma said, "Humans and machines are going to be going to war against one another. The machines are going to win but not before human basically scorch the sky in an attempt to block out the sun, the machines' source of energy. Unfortunately, machines find out that they can basically 'harvest' humans for energy much like they could sunlight. We're here to stop the war from ever happening,"  
Nene was speechless. Ranma laughed, "I'm just joking,"  
Nene breathed a sigh of relief.  
"I made that up," Ranma said, "It's from this movie I saw from when I was young,"  
"Um, okay," Nene said, "So if that's not the case, then why are we hear?"  
Ranma said, "Well, you seem bored with your life so I figure this can help give it some excitement. Since you like computers and such, I figure we can take a trip together to a very technologically advanced world so you can see what kinda computers that exist on it,"  
"W-what makes you think I was bored with my life?" Nene asked, not really knowing how to react.  
Ranma nodded, "Bored? Yes, most definitely. You looked like you were just waiting around for something to happen. As to what happening, I have no idea. I just figure something like this might be a good change,"  
Nene was surprised at how right Ranma was. He had read her like a book. But then again, this was Ranma. One shouldn't be surprised that he should pick something like that up based on a few chance encounters with her.  
"Don't worry about stuff like work," Ranma said, "I can bring us back mere seconds after we've left. In a sense, you can stay here for basically all your life and then head back, and it would seem like you had never left. The only problem is that you'll go back older than when you left and people would wonder why you're suddenly old,"  
"Well, I have no intention of staying here," Nene said, "But now that I think about it, I am mildly interested in checking this world out,"  
"Cool," Ranma smiled.  
"Um, are you going to be with me all this time?" Nene blushed.  
"Of course," Ranma said, "I brought you here. I'll bring you back when you wanna go back. I have no qualms about staying here for as long as you feel like,"  
"Just like that?" Nene asked, "Just like that you can just up and go to a different world and basically 'live' there for God knows how long?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I can. I've done that before, so doing it now is no different,"  
"Um, how did we manage to get here?" Nene asked, "I noticed you didn't use the nanban mirror,"  
All Ranma did was grin.

new stuff 2/13

Nene looked around as she and Ranma sat inside a random restaurant.  
She noticed that most of the patrons had openly noticeable cybernetic augmentations. For instance, she saw patrons wearing short sleeved shirts that revealed completely robotic arms. Many other patrons had other augmentations like robotic legs and optical implants and such. Little did Ranma and Nene know that they had come to a world where cybernetic augmentation were proudly displayed by everyone. What was odd was that more of the patrons were paying her and Ranma more attention than they them. This was because Nene was completely human, something considered very rare nowadays. In that world, people getting cybernetic augmentation was as common as someone, say, getting their ears pierced.  
"What would you like to order?" a waitress approached their table, a young looking girl with two cybernetic arms. When she noticed Ranma and Nene, she couldn't help but stare for a moment.  
"Something the matter?" Ranma asked.  
"You're both 'Virgins', right?" she said.  
Nene nearly spit out the mouthful of water she was drinking when she heard that.  
Ranma gave the girl an odd look, "Huh?"  
"'Virgin', pure," the girl added, "You have no augmentations,"  
"Oh, I thought you meant something else," Ranma smirked.  
"What do you mean?" the girl gave a curious look. The term 'virgin', which referred to one whom haven't had sexual intercourse, no longer used on that world as that definition. It was a case where one definition replaced the definition of another word. It was similar to how the word 'cool' was rarely used to refer to temperature.  
"Nevermind," Ranma shrugged, "And you're right, neither of us have augmentations. So I guess, if the term fits, then we are 'Virgins',"  
He turned toward Nene and noticed her blushing deeply. After a moment, he realized why.  
"Nene, get your mind outta the gutter," Ranma said.  
He knew exactly what Nene was thinking about. He knew about how all the adult females, whenever they seemed to have too much time on their hands, and were together, actually theorized as to whether or not he had ever had sexual intercourse. Him claiming that he was a so-called 'Virgin', one that had no augmentation, was making Nene think she had finally found out the truth as to Ranma's having sex or not.  
"Just curious, is it hard to live without augmentation?" the girl asked. She touched her arms, "I don't know how I could possibly live without these arms. They're so convenient,"  
"Just curious, what do you find so convenient about cybernetic arms?" Ranma asked, "I guess from our point of view, we don't know what we're missing,"  
The girl extended her index finger where they noticed that it looked like an interface jack.  
"It's so easy to interface with everything this way," the girl said, "Heck, how do you manage to access the Internet without it?"  
Nene suddenly showed signs of concern, "Are you sure?"  
She had been very eager to check this world's computers and surf the internet, to see what kind of world this was. Ranma was the type of person that experienced the world by wandering through the streets and such. Nene was the type to observe it via computer.  
"I'm not too sure," the girl said, "I think you can use these things called a mouse and keyboard, but I have no idea where you'll find those things. I've only heard of those things. I've never seen them before though,"  
Ranma smirked toward Nene, "Wow, it seems like this world is more technologically advanced than any world we've ever been to,"  
"Huh?" the girl asked, wondering what the handsome man was saying.  
"Nevermind," he waved a dismissive hand.  
"Are you guys tourists?" the girl asked.  
"Yeah, I guess you can say so," Ranma chuckled.  
"Well, hopefully, you guys won't have too much trouble in town," the girl commented.  
"Thanks," the two of them said.

Nene poked at her salad.  
"Why're you eating that stuff?" Ranma asked, "You never eat salad. This is the second time I'm eating a meal with you and the second time I'm seeing you eating salad,"  
"I can't help it," she said, "I need to watch what I'm eating. I'm gaining weight,"  
Once again, she found herself a bit surprised at how easily she could just confess something like that to Ranma. Was it really because Ranma made her feel so comfortable that she could tell him anything?  
Ranma said, "Bah, that's bull. You're fine as you are,"  
"Thanks," Nene said, smiling, "But I know I'm gaining weight and I need to do something about it,"  
"If you're so interested in 'losing weight' as you so say," Ranma commented, "They I suggest you eat more,"  
"Eat more?"  
"Yeah, eat more," he said, "I mentioned it before. You actually gain weight if you eat less. I know it kinda goes against logic, but it's the truth,"  
"Can you explain exactly how that works?" she asked.  
"The less often you eat, the more your body deposit fat reserves since it doesn't know when the next meal is coming," Ranma said, "However, if you eat more often, your body starts expecting a constant supply of food so it gets rid of its fat reserves since there's no need for it to store fat,"  
Nene was silent for a moment, "That does make sense,"  
Ranma smirked, "What's even better is that if you keep it up, your metabolism speeds up and eventually overtakes your intake of food. Before long, you can eat like crazy and not worry about what you eat,"  
Nene said nothing. It sounded too good to be true. What girl wouldn't like to be able to eat whatever she liked and not worry about gaining weight.  
"Or, if you want, I can just hit your pressure points that'll automatically speed up your metabolism," Ranma grinned.  
"You can?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I did that to Asuka a long time ago, when we went back to Asuka's old world in order to prevent Second Impact. That's why she can eat as much as she currently does and not gain an ounce of fat," "That's why Asuka can eat like a pig?" Nene's eyes widened in jealousy, "I thought it was because she was young and that her metabolism was naturally faster because of her age,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Actually, that's not the case. I sped up her metabolism temporarily. Because she ate so much because of the temporarily sped-up metabolism, she acquired her frequent eating habits. When the pressure points wore out, her eating habits made her metabolism naturally faster,"  
"Wow,"  
"If you want, I can do that for you," Ranma smiled warmly.  
Nene thought about it for a moment, "Nah,"  
"What?" Ranma was surprised.  
"I think I'll try and do it on my own," Nene said, "I'll take your advice and try and eat more often, as much as it seems to go against everything I believe. I guess it's because I'd like to see if I can do this on my own," "Okay," Ranma smiled, suddenly finding himself giving her a higher opinion than the high one he already gave her.  
Together, the two of them ate their meal. Nene even went as far as to ask the waitress to bring her a small burger on top of her order of salad. The two of them ate their meal, seemingly enjoying each other's company. Before long, they were finished with their meal and given there check.  
Ranma smirked as he noticed something.  
"Hey, it looks like we're going to be doing some running," Ranma said.  
"Running? What for?" Nene asked.  
Ranma held up the check, still grinning.  
"We don't have any currency to pay for this meal. Looks like we're gonna hafta make a break for it when no one's looking,"

"I can't believe what you made me do," Nene complained as she stopped to catch her breath, "You just made me run out on paying for that meal. That's basically stealing,"  
Ranma grinned, "So?"  
"I'm a policewoman," Nene stated loudly, "What kind of example am I setting if I, a policewoman, am basically breaking the law?"  
"Yeah, that's kinda ironic now that I think about it," Ranma said, "But there's nothing to worry about. It's not like we got caught,"  
"That's not the point," Nene said, "We should've told them we couldn't pay for the meal and did our time like washing dishes like I see in the movies,"  
Ranma continued to smirk, "Yeah, like either of us wanted to do that. Running out on paying for the check is much easier than working the bill off,"  
Nene sighed, shaking her head, "You still don't understand,"  
"Hey, I ain't no saint," Ranma smiled, "I do bad stuff when it's convenient for me,"  
After a minute or so, when Nene finally caught her breath, the two of them tried to think of what to do.  
"You wanna go look for an internet caf ?" Ranma suggested.  
"And how do we pay to use them, provided they actually exist?" Nene asked.  
Ranma smiled. "No, I'm not going to run out on paying," Nene said, reading Ranma's mind, "That's just wrong. You may have no problems doing something like that, but I do,"  
"Yet she has no problem hacking into computer databases and changing records," Ranma commented just loud enough for her to hear, "From where I stand, Nene ain't no saint either. I guess she does bad stuff when it's convenient for her also,"  
"You're the one that asked me to do it which is why I did it," Nene said.  
Ranma laughed aloud, placing an arm around Nene's shoulders, "I'm just teasing ya,"  
Nene blushed a deep shade of red when she realized Ranma had his arm around her.  
"We need some money," Ranma commented, "Let's go rob a bank. That's an easy way to get some money and fast,"  
"What?" Nene's eyes widened.  
"Don't worry," Ranma said, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you,"  
"That's not the point!"

Nene sat on a nearby bench and watched as Ranma crossed the street and entered a bank. It was the middle of the day.  
"Oh man, I can't believe it," Nene said to herself, "Ranma's really going to rob the bank. That's just plain crazy,"  
"Yes, it is," came a voice.  
Nene looked up. To her surprise, it was the short-haired woman Ranma had stuffed in the trunk of her patrol car not too long ago.  
"M-M-Motoko!" Nene gasped.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes at Nene as she stood before her, looking down at her. She was seriously pissed off. She had been out looking for Ranma for the past hour and was intent on killing him. Never had she been so embarrassed when she finally managed to break out of the trunk, only to see an amused Bateau, her partner, sitting nearby and smirking.  
"Looks like this 'Ranma' person got the better of you," Bateau had commented with a smirk. This had happened about an hour ago.  
"I'm going to kill him," was all Motoko could say as she flipped her car over on to its roof out of shear frustration before walking off in some random direction.  
Bateau didn't really know what to do so he opted to stay behind and flip the car back over and drive it back to the station. He knew Motoko really well and knew she needed time to cool off. It was pure luck that Motoko ended up spotting Nene sitting on a bench as she was walking down the street trying to cool off. Motoko leaned forward, bringing her face close to Nene's, "Guess what, you're under arrest,"  
Nene held her hands up defensively, "Hold up,"  
"What?" Motoko narrowed her eyes.  
"On what charges?" Nene asked, hoping she could talk her way out. Deep down inside, she knew it was fruitless.  
"On the charges that I'm pissed off and I can do whatever I want because I have the authority to do so," Motoko replied. Nene gulped.  
"Where's your friend?" Motoko said, "And I suggest you think very carefully about what you're going to say,"  
Nene regarded Motoko for a moment, feeling a great sense of fear. How could Ranma not be scared of this woman? She looked absolutely deadly, like her icy stare could kill.  
But then again, what the heck did Ranma have to be afraid of? Perhaps he could deal with Motoko much better than Nene could.  
"Um," Nene pointed, "He's in the middle of robbing that bank,"  
Motoko gave her a curious look, "Robbing that bank?"  
"Um, yeah," Nene said, "We have no money so he said he was going to go rob a bank so he could get money. There was no way I can convince him otherwise,"  
"If you are a so-called 'policewoman', as you claimed," Motoko said with much skepticism, "Then shouldn't it be your duty to stop him?"  
Nene gestured toward the bank entrance a short distance away, "Okay, you try and stop him,"  
Motoko turned toward the bank, "I'm going to do just that,"  
She turned back toward Nene and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her, securing her to the bench.  
"What the?" Nene said.  
"You stay here, I'll deal with you later," Motoko said.  
Motoko walked off toward the bank.  
However, before she actually made it into the bank, she ended up literally bumping into Ranma as he was on his way out.  
"Well well well, if it isn't Motoko-chan," Ranma said, a bit surprised.  
"What did you call me?" Motoko sneered.  
"I see you managed to get outta the trunk all right," Ranma said.  
"You're coming with me," Motoko said, "I'm taking you down to the station,"  
Ranma seemed somewhat amused, "Right. Whatever you say. Now, if you'll excuse me,"  
He walked past Motoko as she just stood there, shocked at Ranma's audacity. After he took a few steps, he stopped when he heard the sound of a click coming from behind him. He didn't need to turn around to know that it was the sound of Motoko training her gun on his back.  
"Take one more step and I'll shoot," Motoko warned him in a stern voice.  
Ranma raised his leg, and in a very slow and deliberate fashion, took an exaggerated step forward. To Motoko's surprise, she actually didn't pull the trigger like she had said. Who the hell was this guy? He was either incredibly stupid or incredibly fearless. She wanted to believe it was the former but had the funny feeling it was the latter. Ranma turned around to face Motoko, "Look, we started off on the wrong foot. Can we let bygones be bygones?"  
Motoko shook her head, "That's not an option,"  
"What, you're pissed off because I threw you in the trunk?" Ranma smirked.  
She gritted her teeth at the thought of being reminded what had he had done to her.  
"I wouldn'tve done that if you didn't shoot at me," Ranma said, "And as a matter of fact, you got off easy. If you were up against the corrupted version of myself, I probably would've erased you from existence,"  
"Is that some kinda threat?" Motoko challenged him.  
With lightning fast speed, Ranma dashed forward and grabbed the gun out of Motoko's hand. Not only was she shocked that she was unable to see him move until it was too late, but he had managed to close the distance between them without her seeing it. This was because Motoko and Ranma had been around fifteen feet apart when Ranma dashed forward.  
Motoko took a step back out of surprise.  
Ranma pointed the gun toward Motoko's leg in the exact same fashion she had done toward him earlier.  
"How about and eye for an eye?" Ranma said, "You tried to shoot at my leg. Luckily, I dodged it. How about I shoot at your leg now and see if you can dodge it? And after that, I try and shoot you a few more times like you did?"  
Motoko smirked, "You think something like that scares me? Just try,"  
She knew Ranma would not be able to fire a single shot. This was because her weapon was custom made for her and only she could fire it.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes at Motoko for a moment, "Man, you're one crazy girl, y'know that?"  
He didn't pull the trigger. Instead, he squeeze his hands on the gun, breaking it into tiny pieces.  
"Oops, I broke your toy," Ranma said, "Looks like you're unarmed now,"  
Motoko just stood there, wondering how Ranma had managed to do that with such ease. He was a human, right? It was obvious he didn't have cybernetic parts or she would have been able to detect them.  
"Please, leave me alone," Ranma turned around and proceeded to walk away.  
Motoko, fuming from being made a fool of, pulled out her last remaining weapon, a twelve inch military style knife.  
She dashed forward, blade pointed toward Ranma's shoulder blade. She didn't intend to kill him, but she intended to incapacitate him. Since she had no more guns, Ranma having destroyed both of them, she would have to make do with her last remaining weapon, her knife.  
Before she was able to stab Ranma, he turned around and intercepted the blade between his index and middle finger. This stopped Motoko dead in her tracks.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes. With a twist of the wrist, he broke the blade off, rendering Motoko's knife useless.  
"Fuck that, I'm throwing you in the trunk again," Ranma snapped, "You don't know when to quit, d'ya? You're goddamn worse than Lina and Emiko when I first me them,"  
Once again, before Motoko realized what was happening, she found herself swooped off her feet and tucked under Ranma's arm in the same fashion as before.  
At that moment, the sounds of sirens could be heard in the background.  
"Ah, y'hear that?" Ranma said, "That's the police on its way here. Why? Cause I just robbed this bank. Y'know what? I'm gonna just stand here and hold you like this until they arrive. Rather than throw you in some car's trunk, I'm just gonna embarrass you and let all your co-workers see you in this predicament. Heck, I'm even gonna spank you while they're all watching, just for show,"  
"You better enjoy it because I'm going to kill you afterwards," Motoko shouted at him in anger.  
"So far, you're '0-2' on that department," Ranma smirked, "Twice you tried to kill me, and twice you've failed. You're batting zero right now. And when I get away after I let you go, you'll be '0-3',"  
Motoko found herself turning red with anger as she tried to struggle to get free. Unfortunately, Ranma's strength seemed infinite and she couldn't budge one bit.  
"Keep on struggling," Ranma taunted, "Maybe you'll use up all of your energy and will then need to have your batteries recharged or whatever,"  
The sirens could be heard getting closer and closer.  
Ranma, still holding Motoko, crossed the street and over to where Nene was. Since Nene was busy the whole time picking at her handcuffs, she didn't notice Ranma until he was basically standing right in front of her.  
"Look who I bumped into," Ranma said. He then noticed the handcuffs, "What the?"  
"R-Ranma!" Nene was very surprised to see him so suddenly. She was also see Motoko again.  
Ranma looked at Motoko, "You did this to her, didntja? Man, leave her alone,"  
He leaned forward and used his free hand to break the handcuffs. After he did, Nene rubbed at her wrists slightly.  
"You okay?" Ranma asked, concern in his voice.  
"I'm okay," she answered. She regarded Motoko held snugly under Ranma's arm. She seemed completely helpless in that position. It was almost comedic, a stark difference between the Motoko she was looking at just minutes before.  
"Um, what are you going to do?" Nene asked, gesturing toward Motoko.  
"I'll let her go if she promises to behave," Ranma grinned.

new stuff 2/14

Motoko smirked, "Okay, I'll behave," She said that in a very sarcastic voice. It wasn't as if he was going to let her go.  
Ranma gently placed her back down on the ground. Once again, she was shocked that he did so. This man was so unpredictable. His actions seemed simultaneously chaotic and calculated and it worried her somewhat.  
"Look, let's just start over," Ranma said, extending his hand toward her. Looking at it, Motoko realized that it seemed like a friendly gesture on his part to shake hands. However, she made no motions to shake his hand. She promptly ignored it, purposely placing her hands on her hips as she regarded him intently.  
Now that she was able to get a good look at him, she noticed that he was taller than her, but not by much. Height-wise, he was perhaps a bit shorter than her partner, Bateau. His body was very well-built and lean. It gave off a great sense of power which confused Motoko since she couldn't understand how a body that small and lean could generate that much power. It also looked like it wasn't expected move that swiftly but, somehow, Ranma was able to move his body faster than her optical implants could detect.  
She glanced over toward Nene and noticed her giving Motoko a dirty stare. However, it was only for a split second for Nene turned away where their eyes met. Motoko wondered if that was jealousy she saw in Nene's eyes.  
So, it seems like that girl likes this guy and doesn't like the way I'm looking at him, Motoko thought.  
Ranma continued to hold his hand forward, "Are you going to leave me hanging?"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes, "And what makes you think I ever intend to shake your hands?"  
Ranma sighed as he placed his hands in his pocket and sat down on the bench next to Nene. He scooted closer toward Nene which allowed space for Motoko to sit if she wanted to. Of course, she stood right where she was.  
Several police cars came to a screeching halt in front of the bank across the street. This confused Motoko because Ranma seemed to show no signs of nervousness toward authorities. Perhaps that was why he seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that she was, in essence, a police officer as well.  
"Um, maybe we should get going," Nene suggested nervously. Ranma turned toward her, "We can leave if you want. But, like I said, even if they notice us, they can't do anything so there's really nothing to worry about,"  
"Um, I guess you have a point," Nene seemed to calm down. She believed Ranma's words utterly. Perhaps it was hearing him say that that made her feel much better, even thought deep down inside, she knew Ranma would make sure she be all right no matter what. Motoko said, "You seem completely unbothered by the fact that the police is right across the street,"  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Why should I be worried? What the heck can they do even if they realized I'm sitting right across the street?"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes slightly. Was that the same mindset Ranma had toward her? Did he consider her incapable of doing anything to him? "Who are you and why're you here?" Motoko asked, keeping an open mind.  
"We're from another world," Ranma said, "We're just visiting,"  
"You take me for some kind of fool?" Motoko was offended. Ranma shrugged, "Fine. Don't believe me. It's not like I'm gonna have any problems sleeping at night at the thought that you don't believe a word I say,"  
"Why you!" Motoko found herself very angry, her hands clenching into fists. When she realized that Ranma was getting to her, she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Never had she gotten so riled up so easily by someone before. It was as if Ranma's unpredictable personality was the flamethrower against her icy exterior.  
Ranma smirked, "Man, you remind me of several girls I know,"  
Nene turned toward Ranma, "Really? Who does she remind you of?"  
"She's like a combination of Lina and Asuka and Akane and Emiko," Ranma commented, "She's as quick to piss off as Akane. As easy to tease as Asuka. And has as much animosity toward me as Emiko initially. And as quick to do something drastic as Lina,"  
Nene giggled slightly. That was so true. She was thinking that as well. She didn't know about the Emiko part since she never really knew just how much Emiko hated Ranma initially, but she was sure the other three girls' personality fit Motoko pretty well.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes, "And who are these people you're referring me to?"  
"These girls I know," Ranma said. He then turned toward Nene, "Hey, let's go get something to eat,"  
"But we just ate a short while ago," Nene commented.  
"What about it?" Ranma said, "There's nothing wrong with eating again. And like I said earlier, it's better that we eat more often than not,"  
At that moment, a police car similar to the one Ranma had stuffed Motoko into pulled up right in front of them. From out of the car emerged a large man that looked to weigh close to two-hundred and fifty pounds. Because the man was almost completely cybernetic, he weighed close to a thousand pounds.  
The man had obvious cybernetic eyes for it made it looks as if he was wearing round-lens sunglasses. He had light brown hair done up in a pony-tail that hung down below his shoulders.  
Ranma didn't pay much attention toward the man but looked up as the man approached them and stopped and stood next to Motoko.  
"Glad you can finally join us, Bateau," Motoko smirked toward her partner.  
Nene gulped as she looked up at the large man standing next to Motoko. That was one big man. She noticed that he had no eyebrows which made him look even scarier. The man looked like a powerhouse, a man that seemed to compliment Motoko's speed with brute strength. She knew the man was Motoko's partner even without being told. Ranma got up off the bench and extended his hand and smile, "Are you a friend of Motoko-chan here?"  
"Motoko-chan?" Bateau smirked as he turned toward his partner.  
Motoko ignored the teasing glance.  
"I'm Ranma," Ranma said, hand extended forward.  
"Is this some kind of joke?" Bateau said, smirking slightly.  
Motoko turned toward Ranma and said, "You and your friend will be come with us,"  
"No thanks," Ranma said. Realizing Bateau wasn't going to shake his hand, he placed it back down by his side.  
"I don't think you understand," Motoko said, assuming a rather icy cold posture, "You have no choice,"  
Ranma sighed, "Lettme guess, you called in your partner so you can team up on me?"  
"He isn't the only one," Motoko said, jerking a thumb over he back toward the rooftop of the bank, "You're now surrounded by six Tachikomas," Nene looked up toward the rooftop of the bank and noticed three blue spider-  
like machines. Wondering where the other two were, she glanced around and realized there were three more gathered on top of the building directly behind her.  
She couldn't help but think of them as some kind of motoslave-like vehicle that she used to use a long time ago.  
"Tachikomas? What's that?" Ranma asked, curious.  
"It doesn't really matter," Motoko answered, "All you need to know is that you and your friend will be coming with us,"  
Ranma sighed again, "Dontcha ever quit? Jeez,"  
"If you don't want to come with us the hard way, then I suggest you cooperate," Motoko said.  
"Fuck it, we don't have time for this," Ranma said, turning toward Nene, "We've got what we wanted anyway, some money,"  
He extended his hand toward her for her to take, which she did. She got up to her feet and took a step toward him, making sure to stay extra close to him.  
"And where do you think you're going?" Bateau reached out and placed Bateau was a highly skilled hand-to-hand combat fighter, even better than Motoko since he was actually stronger and faster than her, what with his highly advanced cybernetic body. However, despite such qualities, he was unable to do anything as he suddenly found himself shoulder thrown to the ground and on to his back.  
Ranma grinned as he looked down at Bateau, "I don't hit girls, but I have no problems hitting a guy,"  
Motoko took in that comment. Was that the reason why Ranma never attacked her, because he had some chauvinistic male principle? If that was true, it was absolutely infuriating. Even so, she did nothing about it because she was in a current state of shock at the sight of Bateau lying on the ground, Ranma in an obvious advantageous position. Bateau suddenly realized what kind of position he was in and rolled on the ground back on to his feet.  
"Please leave us alone," Ranma said once again, "I don't want to fight. It's useless to do so, especially against someone like me. My power is beyond comprehension,"  
Nene took in that comment and wondered what that meant. Luna used to say that about the God-version of Ranma back then. If Ranma was saying that now, did it mean he had God-powers? That was insane.  
"My, aren't we arrogant?" Motoko said, assuming a fighting stance.  
Bateau did the same, smiling quite a bit. Perhaps it was because he hadn't had a good hand-to-hand combat fight in the longest time and wanted to try out his new body.  
Ranma sighed, "Okay, fine, give me your best shot,"  
Motoko dashed in and punched toward Ranma's face. Unfortunately for her, Ranma seemed to disappear. Before she knew it, she was once again picked up off the ground and tucked under Ranma's one arm, her arms by her side. This confused the hell out of her because she could not see how Ranma was able to move so fast and seize her so quickly.  
As Bateau dashed in to attack, Ranma pivoted around and used Motoko's legs to hit him in the chest, sending him staggering where he ended up bumping into the back of patrol car.  
Ranma had a mischievious grin on his face.  
"Care to pop the trunk and climb in? It'll help save me a lot of trouble,"

"Wow, didja see those spider-like machines?" Ranma said as he and Nene walked down the street, "They're so cool. I want one of those. You think Motoko will give us one?"  
It was fairly late in the afternoon and the two of them were wandering around looking for a good place to eat. Around a half-hour had passed since Ranma utterly defeated all his opponents.  
"I highly doubt it," Nene said, "The fact that she probably hates you even more than ever now that you've stuff her and her partner in the trunk together and broke all the legs of those six Tachikomas as Makoto referred to is probably a good reason why not,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess you have a point," "Motoko is going to come after you with a vengeance now," Nene commented.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "If she does, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. Even when Lina and I got off on the wrong foot, she didn't come after me so vehemently and with such animosity like Motoko,"  
"Maybe we should just head back home," Nene suggested.  
"We can if you want," Ranma said, "What, you're not enjoying yourself? I brought you here to help you forget about back home,"  
Nene smiled warmly, "And for that, I'm really grateful. It's just that she's making seem like we're on the run or something. It feels very stressful knowing that there's someone constantly chasing after us wanting to basically kill us,"  
Ranma laughed, "Welcome to my world. I think that's how I've lived all my life,"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Between me and Ryoga," Ranma said, "He basically wants to kill me,"  
"That's not what I mean," Nene said, "What you have is some kinda rivalry. With Motoko, she seems to really hate you,"  
Ranma shook his head, "What, you don't think Ryoga hates me? He hates me every bit as I hate him,"  
"Wait, you hate him?" Nene was surprised, "But-"  
"I don't necessarily hate him, but I sure don't like him," Ranma smirked, "So let's just leave it at that,"  
"Well, still," Nene said.  
"Anyway, do you want to go to some different world if this one bothers you?" Ranma asked, "It's just that, aside from being chased, this is kind of a cool world. I'm actually interested in what you have to find out about what kinda world this is when we get you in front of a computer,"  
Nene couldn't help but feel a bit giddy at the thought, "I know. Me too. There's got to be tons of stuff on this world that I've never dreamed possible,"  
"So you want to stay?" he asked.  
"Yeah," she said.  
Ranma smiled. He liked how much Nene was opening up. She seemed to have forgotten about how boring her life was back home so he was more than happy to keep her occupied.  
"All right," he said, "But first, let's go get some food,"

new 2/17

Motoko had to do a double take when she spotted Ranma through the restaurant window.  
This was because Ranma and Nene were in a restaurant only one block away from their encounter with Motoko and Bateau. They seemed to be enjoying a meal, oblivious to the fact that Motoko was looking for them. In a sense, it was a great mockery, that they didn't even make any attempts to escape her wrath.  
Motoko remembered Ranma having made a comment about being hungry and wanting to go eat. When she managed to get out of the trunk of the patrol car Bateau had pulled up in, she intended to search all eating establishments within a five mile radius in hopes of finding them. The fact that Ranma and Nene stopped at the very first and closest restaurant to the encounter was ridiculous.  
"Is this guy making a mockery of us?" Bateau felt a twinge of anger. He didn't feel like communicating with Motoko silently. Since both of their minds were hardwired to the Internet wireless, they could communicate with each other without having to physically speak. In a sense, it was very similar to telepathy. Usually, when he was angry, he preferred to speak, and right now, he was angry.  
He and Motoko were standing outside the restaurant on either side of the front window. When they had spotted Ranma, they took cover away from the window, hoping he didn't see them.  
Motoko took a quick peek and noticed Ranma and Nene intent on eating. It looked like they weren't noticed.  
"I'm getting seriously pissed off here," Motoko commented, "I'm really angry for what he's done to me, but I'm even more angry that he isn't paying attention to me, like I'm not even worth the bother,"  
Bateau smirked, "Is this some kinda jealousy thing, that he seems to pay more attention to that girl he's with than you?"  
Motoko used her hacking ability to hack into Bateau's body and make him punch himself in the face. Once again, since both Motoko's and Bateau's mind were hardwired wirelessly to the Internet, it was very easy for Motoko to take temporary control of Bateau's body and make him punch himself.  
This was one of the reasons why Bateau couldn't beat Motoko in a fight, because Motoko had no gripes about fighting dirty. Bateau was actually far stronger and skilled a fighter, but the fact that Motoko was able to hack his mind temporarily gave her a complete advantage.  
She really wished could do the same with Ranma. Basically everyone alive was hardwired to the Internet which meant she could hack into their mind and take temporary control of their bodies. Because Ranma wasn't, she could not use one of her best abilities. She found that frustrating and taking that frustration out on Bateau was a good release.  
Bateau narrowed his eyes toward Motoko, rubbing at his face, "You better not hack my brain again. Do that one more time and I'm to disconnect my mind from the Internet and beat you down,"  
Motoko smirked. Bateau had made that comment every time she did that and he had never followed through with it. Since they were partners, they knew each other best, and Motoko know Bateau would never do that.  
"Where did you meet this guy?" Bateau asked. "I bumped into him a short while ago," Motoko answered, "I would've had Net-  
Master if it wasn't for this guy. He prevented me from catching him,"  
"Does he have anything to do with Net-Master?" Bateau asked.  
Motoko said, "I'm not too sure,"  
"Don't tell me this is some kinda personal vendetta," Bateau was surprised at his partner.  
Motoko didn't bother answering that. She wondered if it really was some kind of vendetta or not. This was definitely the first time she had ever been upstaged by someone and it really bothered her. In all her decades working as an operative for Section 9, this was the first time she was ever up against an opponent she had no idea how to confront.  
Motoko was a highly skilled special ops operative, used to dealing with super-  
villains like super-hackers and even sentient computer viruses. But with Ranma, she had no idea how to deal with him. He was physically superior to her and Bateau. She had no doubts about it. The only thing she could do is use her mind against him. The problem is that his unpredictable personality made it hard for her to figure him out.  
Bateau smirked, "Man, if Togusa and the others were still around, they would he laughing up a riot. It seems like someone can actually chip the armor on their ice cold 'Major'.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes toward Bateau some more. She contemplated hacking into Bateau's mind again and making him punch himself but chose against it.  
Motoko and Bateau were operatives of 'Section 9', a special anti-cybernetic terrorism unit for the Japanese government. The chief that used to be in charge of 'Section-9' was an old man named Aramaki. He had retired around thirty years ago where Motoko, second in command then, took over and became chief. Unlike the previous chief, Motoko did field work which was the reason why she had been out chasing Net-Master instead of letting her subordinates do it for her.  
Bateau was Motoko's partner back then. When Motoko became chief, he became second in command and worked under her. However, since they knew each other so well, they were considered partners. They also compliment each other because Bateau usually provided support and control over Motoko, she tending to go too far in her pursuit for justice. There were other members to 'Section 9' but the ones of note had retired long ago. Togusa, the only member of 'Section 9' back then that had a completely original body, had retired because of old age, around the same time as the old chief. That was around thirty-fives years ago. Togusa was the last person that Motoko could remember ever having a completely human body. Perhaps finding out that neither Ranma and Nene were cyborgs like her made her a bit nostalgic of a few decades ago.  
Oddly enough, even though Motoko looked to be somewhere in her late twenties, she was actually about as old as Ranma was. Her outward appearance belied her true age.  
Bateau was even older than her. However, because he and Motoko constantly upgraded their bodies, they remained essentially young and looked basically the same as they did since they've started working for 'Section 9' around seventy years ago.  
Although 'Section 9' had other people working there, Motoko and Bateau were the only ones that remained from the original team when it was first implemented. And at the current moment, Motoko was seriously considering allocating some personnel toward her target at hand. However, in the meanwhile, she'll leave it be since everyone else probably had their hands full trying to track down Net-Master.  
Motoko peeked in through the window to see where Ranma and Nene were with their meals. She quickly ducked back down when she saw Ranma stop eating his meal to gaze in their general direction. She was glad she hid herself quick enough not to be seen.  
Inside the restaurant, Nene and Ranma continued eating and talking.  
"Man, I can't believe I'm eating again," Nene commented, poking at her food which was a vegetable burger, "I feel like I'm doing something horribly wrong eating so quickly since our last meal. It hasn't been, what, two hours, if that,"  
Ranma said, "Don't worry about it. Everything'll work out,"  
"I hope so," Nene commented.  
Ranma jerked a thumb over his back in the direction of the front of the restaurant, "Guess, what, we've got company,"  
"We do?" Nene gulped, very sure she knew who Ranma was referring to.  
"Who else, Motoko and her friend," Ranma said.  
"See? I told you we shouldn't stop off at the very first restaurant we come across," Nene commented, "Now we've got to deal with them again,"  
Ranma shrugged, "So? It's nothing to worry about. Besides, why should we let worrying about them ruin our meal?"  
"You seem awfully relaxed," Nene stated.  
Ranma nodded, "I know. Because, there's nothing they can do,"  
"Nothing?" Nene asked.  
"Right," Ranma said, "There is absolutely, positively nothing that they can do to us. Just trust me,"  
Nene gave a slight smile, "I trust you. I'm sure you're more than enough for them. But what about me? If a fight or battle breaks out, I'm caught right in the middle,"  
"Don't worry about it," Ranma smiled warmly, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you,"

new stuff 2/20

Ranma's words, once again, put Nene at ease.  
He signaled the waiter over. "May I help you?" the waiter asked when he approached their table.  
"Is there a back door to this restaurant?" Ranma asked.  
The man nodded, "Yes. It leads to the alley, why?"  
"There are two people standing outside this place out," Ranma commented, "They're our friends, can you bill them when they come in? We will be leaving through the back door,"  
"Very well," the man said.  
When the waiter walked off, Nene snickered, "You're so bad,"  
"Hey, like I said, I ain't no saint," he commented.  
Nene giggled, "That definitely seems to be the case. In a sense, it's as if your alignment is chaotic good,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Chaotic good? What's that?"  
Nene waved a dismissive hand, figuring Ranma wasn't interested in what she had to say. She liked reading fantasy books and she was pretty sure Ranma would never read something like that. Actually, she knew Ranma would not read such things. This was because Ranma rarely ever read.  
"Don't worry about it," Nene answered, "It's not important,"  
"C'mon, tell me," Ranma was interested, "'Chaotic Good', that sounds really cool,"  
Nene said, "Um, I like fantasy books and it's something used to describe a character's alignment,"  
"An alignment? You mean like good and evil?" Ranma asked.  
Nene nodded, "Yeah. However, in the fantasy world, there's also neutral. So basically, you can be either good, neutral, or evil. And among those categories, there are three subcategories for that, chaotic, neutral, or lawful,"  
Ranma gave an embarrassed smile, "Um, you already lost me,"  
"For instance, let's take you for example," Nene said, "You'd basically be considered chaotic good. Why? Because you do good deeds, like helping people out, even if you don't know them. Chaotic represents how you go about doing good deeds. In a sense, you would do the 'good' deed of giving poor people money, but you would go about getting the money through 'chaotic' means like robbing a bank,"  
Ranma said, "Hm, I guess I do do that, huh? If I'm chaotic good, then what would you be?"  
Nene smiled confidently, "What else, lawful good,"  
"Lawful good?" Ranma smirked, "Lettme guess, you do good stuff, which is good, and you go about it using lawful means,"  
"Right," Nene nodded, a bit surprised at how fast Ranma was picking this up.  
"What would neutral neutral be?" Ranma asked.  
"I don't know, probably someone like Priss," Nene said, "She does neither good nor evil stuff. And she is the type of person that would not do stuff like rob a bank, which would be considered chaotic, but she would neither do stuff like following rules and laws, which would be considered lawful,"  
"That's kinda interesting," Ranma said, "And you learned about this from reading fantasy books?"  
Nene nodded, "Um, yeah,"  
"Hm, maybe I should give reading those kinda books a try," Ranma said, scratching his chin, "It can help pass the time,"  
"R-really?" Nene's eyes widened, "You really mean it?"  
Ranma was a bit surprised at how much Nene brightened up, "Whoa,"  
"I'm sorry," Nene said, "It's just that I got a bit excited. I like fantasy books, and I got excited at the thought that you might start reading such books and might even grow to like that genre,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Who knows. I'll give it a try,"  
"That's great!" Nene said happily. Even thought she shouldn't be thinking that way, and counting her chickens before they hatched, she was already envisioning Ranma's liking what he was reading and the two of them having a common interest.  
"Y'wanna go to the library after this?" Ranma asked, "Maybe we can pick up a book for me to read,"  
"I have the book at home at my place," Nene said, "It's a trilogy. I'll give you the first book to see how you like it. I'll be sure to give it to you when we get back home,"  
"Okay," Ranma said, "That sounds fine by me," Wanting to change the subject, he added, "Well, I think it's about time we get going now,"  
"Okay," Nene said, getting up out of her seat.  
Together, Ranma and Nene left the restaurant via the back door.  
Not even a few seconds since they disappeared into the back of there restaurant, Motoko and Bateau stormed into the restaurant. As they were about to rush toward the back where Ranma and Nene had disappeared, the waiter from before stepped in front of the two, blocking their path.  
"The man and woman that just left said that you two will be paying for their bill," the waiter said.  
Motoko stopped for a moment. Bateau did the same as well.  
She turned toward her partner as she realized something. It was very obvious that Ranma had somehow known that she and Bateau were watching them. Why else would he had manipulated the waiter into believing that she and her partner would be the one that was supposed to pay the bill?  
"How did he know we were watching him?"

Ranma and Nene walked down the street together, enjoying one another's company. Ranma seemed oblivious that Nene seemed to be enjoying it far more than he.  
"This makes our world look like the Stone Age," Ranma commented, noticing how futuristic everything was. Nene said, "Well, this world isn't much more advanced than the last world we went to,"  
"Which world is that?" Ranma scratched his head, "Considering how many worlds I've been to, I kinda get confused on which world is which. Heck, I'm sure a lotta people have problems with remember too,"  
"The world where you and Rei were one person," Nene commented, "That world was basically, what, a hundred or so years in the future of the world Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Misato, and Ritsuko had come from. Priss especially liked that world,"  
"Oh? How come?" Ranma asked.  
"I remember once she was blown away at how sleek and nice-looking this motorcycle was," Nene commented, "She had a funny feeling that it was just some production model motorcycle and only had stock parts,"  
"What about it?" he was still confused.  
Nene smirked, "The motorcycle of that world, stock, could beat out Priss' own bike now,"  
Ranma shrugged, "I guess that should be expected. Some worlds are more advanced than others,"  
Nene giggled, "You say that as if it's a commonplace. Then again, considering how many worlds you've been to, I guess that's understandable from your perspective,"  
"Hey, before we go back, wanna steal something from this world?" Ranma smirked, "Let's steal a computer or something. When we bring it back, Ritsuko's MAGI computer will be basically obsolete compared to 'em,"  
Nene quickly said, "You can't do that!"  
"Why not?" he asked.  
"Won't it cause some kind of rift in the space-time continuum?" Nene asked, "Can't bringing something from one world severely alter the path of another world?"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Space-time continuum? What is this, some kinda sci-  
fi story? Who cares about that stuff. If I was worried about that, I wouldn'tve brought everyone from all those other worlds to our world. Heck, if I worried about that, I wouldn'tve stayed behind on that other world, where I was born from Unit-01. And if I didn't come back home, none of this would've happened to the world or me,"  
"I guess you have a point," Nene said. She giggled slightly, "It's kind of funny if you think about it. People have made a living out of explaining how the space-time continuum exists and such, and all of that is useless,"  
Ranma chuckled, "That's not even the tip of the iceberg. I've seen so much stuff it's not even funny,"  
"You were gone for a year, afterall," Nene commented, "Speaking of which, what did you do during the time you were away?"  
"I don't know," Ranma shrugged, "This and that. I went to a few other worlds though. Did a few things, kinda messed it up, Urd had to come by and fix it up. After I did that three times, she said I wasn't allowed to take 'vacation' trips anymore,"  
"But what about now?" Nene asked, "You're back on our world. Isn't Urd worried about you messing that one up as well? Heck, what about this world?"  
Ranma grinned, "Well, what Urd don't know about, won't hurt her,"  
"You have one messed up way of thinking," Nene commented.  
"So, y'wanna bring something from here back to our world?" Ranma asked, "Like a computer or car or something?"  
Nene shrugged, "Whatever you want,"  
Ranma jerked a thumb over his back, "Don't worry, we'll bring back something, not someone. I've brought back enough people back to our world. Enough's enough. That's why I didn't bring anyone back with me when I went back to Heaven,"  
"You said you went to three worlds," Nene noticed, "Does that mean, after visiting every world, you went back to Heaven?"  
Ranma nodded, "Uh huh,"  
"How come you never came back home?" she asked.  
Ranma shrugged after a moment, "No particular reason. Just wanted to go places. Since I'm not tied down to anything, there's nothing really obligating me to be anywhere,"  
"W-what about us?" Nene asked, shocked that Ranma could be so whimsical.  
"What about you guys?" he asked, "You guys can take care of yourselves. It's not like you guys need me around or anything,"  
"What about Jun, Madigan's and Carper's daughter?" Nene asked, "Didn't you make a promise to her?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I did. That's why I'm back,"  
"What promise did you make her?" Nene asked.  
Ranma smirked, "What, you already forgot? You and everyone were there when I made that promise,"  
"Just tell me, it's really bothering me that I don't know what it is," Nene almost pouted.  
Ranma laughed, "Don't worry, you're not the only one,"  
Nene let out a sigh. She knew it was no use trying to convince Ranma to do something he didn't want to do. Ranma stopped walking as he turned around and looked up toward the rooftop. Nene stopped right next to him and looked around trying to figure out what Ranma was looking at.  
"What's the matter?" she asked.  
He pointed toward the rooftop of a nearby building, "There's something right there watching us. I don't know what it is though,"  
Nene squinted toward where Ranma was pointing but saw nothing, "What? I don't see anything,"  
Ranma seemed steadfast that there was something there, "We may not be able to see it, but I definitely sense it,"  
Ranma was indeed right. Nearly invisible to human or cybernetic vision was Motoko's Tachikoma, she riding inside. Tachikoma, a newer version of a Fuchikoma, was basically a miniature tank for individual operatives. It looked similar to a spider about a the size of a small car. Extremely agile and packing a very heavy arsenal of weapons, Tachikomas were amazing tools of the trade. Possessing AI, it could function on its own and carry out complex tasks. However, a person could ride within the Tachikoma as well since it provided armor and heavy firepower.  
At the moment, the Tachikoma had on its thermo-optic camouflage, which made it nearly impossible to be seen. Thermo-optic camouflage was a highly advance piece of technology that bent light in a way that made the user using it seem invisible. It also camouflaged heat which infrared sensors useless.  
From within her Tachikoma, Motoko's heart was beating a bit rapidly. 'I think I've been detected,' Motoko silently communicated with Bateau.  
'Are you sure?' he asked.  
Bateau was in his own Tachikoma, slowly making his way via rooftop into a flanking position. 'I'm pretty sure,' she replied, 'He's pointing right at me. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually knew I was in here,'  
'What would you like me to do?' Bateau asked.  
'Cover me,' she said, 'I'm going in. It's time we end this pursuit right now,'  
'You're the boss,' Bateau said.  
Nene found herself a bit nervous seeing Ranma in a cautious stance. With Ranma, virtually nothing bothered him. So if something like this was bothering him, then she definitely had something to be worried about. After a moment, Ranma shrugged, "Aw well, who really cares. It doesn't seem to be doing anything so I guess it'll leave us alone," At that moment, a loud bang could be heard from nearby. Nene and Ranma both turned to look at what it was. That was the moment Motoko took her opportunity to surprise attack Ranma. She had no real idea what she was going to do, but she knew she was going to subdue him this time. Three times she was embarrassed by this man, the most recent one being forced to actually pay for Ranma's and Nene's restaurant bill, and she was not going to be embarrassed a forth time. Ranma turned back around when he heard something heavy land behind him, just in time to react to Motoko making one of her Tachikoma's legs swing around in an attempt to hit him.  
Even though, to the untrained eye, it looked like he was swayed back for no reason, but to Ranma, he knew he was dodging something, whatever it was.  
Motoko was unprepared to miss hitting Ranma. She had never anticipated that Ranma would be able to react something like that. It was as if he somehow knew that she was there even though he couldn't see her.  
Ranma leaned back forward and grabbed the missed leg of Motoko's Tachikoma. The instant he grabbed it, he recognized the feel of the armor beneath his. It felt exactly like those six armored-looking spiders he fought off a short while ago.  
"Wow, you guy's can become invisible, too?" Ranma's eyes widened in delight, "That's so cool,"  
Ranma quickly stepped toward one side as Motoko's ripped open a volley of bullets toward Ranma. Because of where Ranma was standing at the time, Motoko didn't have to worry about hitting any innocent bystanders since Ranma's back was toward a store building. All the bullets would do is cause some damage, something she didn't really care about.  
Ranma slowly circled toward one side as Motoko tried to make her Tachikoma pivot in his direction in an attempt to hit him with at least one bullet.  
'Damn, this guy moves like nothing I've ever seen,' Motoko commented.  
'I've got the girl,' Bateau said, 'Heading toward the rendezvous point,'  
'I'll be there once I'm done with this guy,' Motoko said.  
Motoko glanced toward one corner of her monitor from within her Tachikoma and caught sight of Nene seemingly picked up by an invisible force and whisked away. She knew Nene would be alright. Even though Nene had no idea what was going to happen to her, she was in good hands. It wasn't Nene Motoko was after. It was Ranma. Since it was obvious Nene and Ranma were together, Motoko wanted to separate the two of them. Besides, she wanted to ask Nene some questions about him as well.  
Motoko looked back at the center of her screen, trying to pinpoint Ranma.  
She couldn't find him. A moment of panic enveloped her as she tried to figure out where he could have gone. After a split second, her training kicked in as she was able to rationalize the situation.  
"Bad mistake," Motoko smirked, knowing exactly where Ranma was.  
Ranma was standing on top of the Tachikoma. Because it was still using its optic-cam, short for thermo-optic camouflage, it looked as if Ranma was standing in mid-air.  
"Looks like your guns only shoot forward," Ranma taunted, completely unaware that Nene had been captured. Motoko flipped a switch on her cockpit dashboard, and instantly, a hundred thousand volts surged through the Tachikoma's exoskeleton. Since Ranma was standing on top of it, he received a massive jolt of electricity. Ranma laughed, "Ha, was that supposed to hurt?"  
As he stood on top of the Tachikoma, he looked toward where Nene was, to make sure she was okay. In an instant, he noticed that Nene was no longer nearby, that she had someone been captured.  
Looking down the street, he caught sight of her seeming struggling against an unseen force as it seemed to carry her as it jumped from one building top to the next, making its way away from Ranma.  
"What the!" Ranma's eyes widened in shock. He had literally turned his gaze away from Nene for one second and now she was getting kidnapped? It made Ranma realize that he was up against something a lot more sinister and efficient, whatever it was.  
Without bothering to find out what he was standing on, Ranma made his body extremely heavy. So heavy, in fact, that the Tachikoma's legs broke out from under all that weight. And when Ranma jumped in the general direction of Nene, the force of his take-off sent the Tachikoma right down through the pavement and into the sewer system, Motoko still inside. Because Motoko's cockpit was located in the back portion of the Tachikoma, basically, the thorax portion of the spider-like machine, she was left unscathed while the front portion of her Tachikoma was completely destroyed.  
When she managed to climb out, she looked up from within the sewers toward the sky via the opening in the pavement.  
"Who the hell is that guy?"  
Nene shrieked in fear for her life as she found the ground rushing up and down below her feet. She had no real idea what the heck was going on, but she knew she didn't like it. She could feel something holding her by her waist, but she couldn't see what it was.  
She tried to struggle free, but to no avail. Whatever was holding her had a firm grip. Because of the way she was being held, she ended up looking straight toward Bateau's Tachikoma where she was able to see something that was there, but not clearly. All she could see was some form of distortion of light, but she couldn't really tell exactly what the light was distorting around. All she had was the vague idea that it was about as big as a small car.  
"Let go of me!" Nene tried to steel herself. She didn't know if it was going to work or not, but it didn't hurt to try.  
"Relax," emanated Bateau's voice from an unseen exterior speaker, "You won't be harmed,"  
From within his Tachikoma, Bateau couldn't help but find Nene very cute. He hadn't gotten a good look at her before, but now that he had the chance, he had to admit that she was very cute. She wasn't beautiful or drop-dead gorgeous like some women, but she was definitely as cute as they come.  
"You're hurting me!" Nene complained, wincing in pain.  
Bateau did a quick scan of her and was surprised at what he saw.  
"I'll be damned, she's completely human!" Bateau gasped. A completely adult human was extremely rare. Heck, he hadn't seen a complete adult human in a long long time. Sure, he had seen human babies and all, but they usually don't remain for long, usually receiving their first cybernetic augmentation before they were the tender age of one. Bateau suddenly felt extremely guilty as he realize that he might actually be hurting the girl. If she was really completely human, then she could easily get hurt so he needed to be more gentle.  
"Um, s-sorry," Bateau said, slowing his Tachikoma's pace.  
Because he was maneuvering up on the rooftops, he made his Tachikoma make less grander leaps. Instead of making giant leaps, sometimes hopping over entire buildings, he had it make tiny leaps only over the gaps between the buildings, so the landings would be less harsh on Nene's fragile body.  
Even after he changed his pace, Bateau could still see the pain on Nene's face after every jump. Even though his line of work made him very stoic, he still felt a sense of guilt. For some odd reason, he remembered the last time when he felt truly sympathetic toward someone. It had been many decades ago, when one of his fellow colleagues got hurt on the job. Togusa had dislocated his shoulder once when he was on a foot chase after a suspect and missed making a critical jump over a gap between two buildings.  
Togusa, aside from having his brain hardwired to the Internet, was also completely human. His friend's shoulder never quite worked the same, all the way until the day he retired. Perhaps this was why Bateau perhaps felt a sense of nostalgia after bumping into a human after so long. It reminded him of his friend. His friend also died at the age of eighty-nine, a very young age in Bateau's eyes. In human terms, that was a ripe old age. From his perspective, it was only the mid-point of one's life.  
"Humans are so fragile," he commented. Sure, he was human also, but what he was referring to was someone that wasn't completely cybernetic. Everyone in this world was a cyborg in some way or another. Heck, on average, over eighty percent of this world's population was more than eighty percent cybernetic. The other twenty percent were less than eighty percent cybernetic, perhaps somewhere between fifty to seventy-nine percent.  
'I've lost him,' Bateau heard Motoko's voice, 'He took off,'  
'Took off?' Bateau responded, 'Where to? Are you tailing him?'  
'I can't,' Motoko replied, 'My Tachikoma's completely destroyed. He took off after you,'  
Bateau look at his sensor screens, 'He's after me? Jeez!'  
'Continue on to the rendezvous point,' Motoko said, 'Try and keep him distracted. I'm heading back to HQ to retrieve my 'Custom Rifle'. I'll meet you there,'  
Motoko's 'Custom Rifle' was basically a military issued tank rifle. With an effective range of over five miles with an accuracy that was out of this world, its main purpose was to take out tanks. At this point in time, Motoko didn't care about overkill.  
'Keep him distracted? Great, just great!" Bateau replied sarcastically, 'Why dontcha just go get a damn nuke while you're at it?'  
'I hope it doesn't have to come to that,' Motoko replied.  
Bateau had a bit of trouble determining if she was joking or not.

new stuff 2/24

He turned his attention on to Nene. Realizing that he was hurting her more still, he decided to maneuver his Tachikoma down to the streets below where it would use its wheels, which were situated on the bottom of its feet, to race through the streets. Having his Tachikoma racing through the streets was far less painful on Nene than having it jump from rooftop to rooftop. Since Motoko said that he was being chased, there was no use in implementing in remaining invisible. Besides, it was for the better since seeing a girl seemingly floating in mid-air without the aid of flight boosters would really freak out the populace that happened to be walking the streets. Landing on the streets, Bateau raced off toward the rendezvous point at a high velocity. He didn't get far before Ranma reached him.  
Leaping through the air via rooftop, Ranma skillfully followed Nene, knowing that something invisible was carrying her away. When he noticed the thing take to the streets, he took that opportunity to attack.  
He ended up jumping from a nearby rooftop and right on to the back of Bateau's Tachikoma. The impact, and the fact that Ranma suddenly made his body incredibly heavy, sent the Tachikoma slamming down into the ground tumbling. Nene was left unscathed as Ranma, the moment he landed on the machine, jumped toward Nene. Because she was being held, Ranma grabbed the appendage with one hand and swiped at it with the other hand, severing it right off the machine.  
Carrying the appendage still holding Nene, Ranma leapt high in the air where he landed safely on the rooftop of a nearby building.  
"You okay?" he asked, concern in his voice.  
Nene was in a moment of shock, "R-Ranma?"  
She was very surprised to see him. Not even one minute had elapsed since she had been captured, and already, she had been rescued. Ranma seemed to work really quickly and efficiently at saving people.  
"Are you okay?" he asked again, using his bare hands to free Nene from the machine's severed arm. Nene winced in pain as she touched at her tender midsection. Pulling up the bottom of her shirt to expose her stomach, she was very surprised to see that she had some small scratches, from where she was being held.  
"Ouch," she yelped softly as she touched the tender area. The scratches weren't bleeding and long more along the lines of bruises, but they were very noticeable.  
Ranma eyes widened in concern, "Oh my god, you're hurt,"  
"I'm fine," Nene said.  
"I'm so sorry this happened," Ranma apologized profusely, "I should've been paying more attention. I got caught up in the moment and you got hurt in the process. This shouldn'tve ever've happened,"  
"It's okay," she said honestly, "I'll be fine,"  
She caught sight of Ranma as he was walking away from her and toward the edge of the rooftop.  
"You'll pay for that!" Ranma said in a cold voice down.  
When Nene saw Ranma bring an arm outward, open palm pointing toward the Tachikoma broken down in the middle of the street below, she gasped as she realized what Ranma was going to do.  
"Mouko Taka-" Ranma began to say.  
"No!" Nene rushed forward. She dove forward and shoved Ranma hard. Even though it felt like she was slamming herself into a concrete wall, she seemed to have shoved him hard enough to get his attention.  
Ranma stopped what he was doing and turned around to face her.  
"What is it?" he asked, confused.  
"What were you about to do?" Nene asked, knowing the answer.  
"What else, destroy that damn thing for doing this to you," Ranma answered, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.  
Nene said, "Don't,"  
"Why not?" he scratched his head.  
"Someone's inside it," Nene answered.  
Ranma's eyes widened, "Really? You're kidding me, right?"  
She shook her head, "No. Someone's inside,"  
Ranma was very surprised, "Wow, I didn't know that. I didn't sense anything like there being someone inside. I guess this world being mostly cybernetic is making my sense of my surroundings a bit screwed up. Thank goodness you stopped me,"  
He didn't bother to mention that it seemed like the inhabitants of this world had a few advantages to other worlds. First, because of their cybernetic eyes, it made it impossible for him to read their thoughts. They, Motoko and Bateau being prime examples, moves at inhuman speeds, something that he would be constantly surprised about since he was only used to going against non-human entities that moved at such a speed. And last but not least, they seemed impervious to being manipulated via pressure points.  
"I even recognize the voice. It belonged to that guy that showed up before that you threw to the ground. I think Motoko called him Bateau," Nene added.  
"Oh, so it's a guy driving that thing?" Ranma commented, "I guess means I get to hurt him for a bit,"  
Nene wondered what Ranma meant by that. Bateau was a guy so that meant Ranma could hurt him? Did Ranma have some weird rule where he would not hurt a girl? This got Nene thinking. Was that true? Now that she thought about it, she had never ever seen Ranma hurt a girl before. Wait, that was untrue. Ranma did try and actually kill Urd once. But then again, that Ranma hadn't really been the Ranma she was used to.  
Did Ranma only allow himself to hurt guys?  
"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Nene asked, feeling a bit offended.  
"Huh?"  
"What did you mean by that?" she asked.  
"Girls are fragile," Ranma stated, "I can't hit no girl. They'll get hurt. With a guy, who cares if he gets hurt,"  
Nene found herself simply shocked at how Ranma could so easily make such a statement. What kind of insane logic was that? Also, how the heck did the subject change so quickly? Did Ranma do that, somehow coincidentally said something that would make her forget about the fact that someone just tried kidnapping her?  
Ranma pointed, "Well, it seems like you're right. It is that Bateau guy. That's definitely the guy I beat up. Hm, I wonder what I should do to him for what he's done to you,"  
"I said I'm fine," Nene said, "There's no need to go around beating people up if you don't need to,"  
"Can I at least slap him a few times?" Ranma asked, observing Bateau. Bateau was in the process of climbing out of his Tachikoma. After he got out, he proceeded to dust himself off and assess the situation. He had a surprised look on his face at how badly damaged his Tachikoma was.  
"You okay?" Bateau asked his Tachikoma.  
"I'm fine," Tachikoma replied in a very cute kiddie-like voice, "My body's completely destroyed, but my program's intact,"  
"Well, I'm glad to hear that," Bateau smiled. He couldn't help but feel very happy about that. Although all Tachikoma's were exactly the same and was only temporarily allowed to be customized for individual use, he had a preference to use this particular Tachikoma. "Make a call to HQ to send in a transport truck to bring you back to base," he told it.  
"Okay," Tachikoma did as it was told.  
With his Tachikoma's retrieval taken care of, that left Bateau with the free time to realize what had just happened. He had lost his hostage and Ranma had utterly destroyed his Tachikoma.  
From the safety of the rooftop of a nearby building, Nene watched as Bateau pulled out his gun and ran across the street to take cover in a nearby alleyway.  
"It seems like he's waiting for backup," Nene commented, "That's standard police procedures if something like that happens,"  
"You mean if some dude breaks your spider-tank, you're expected to just chill around and wait for backup?" Ranma smirked.  
"Not that exactly," Nene replied, "You know what I mean. If an officer's, say, car is disabled or nearly destroyed, he or she is expected to take cover from whatever possible enemy fire there is and wait for backup to arrive,"  
Ranma said, "Oh,"  
Nene said, "Let's get out of here,"  
"Get out of here?" Ranma's eyes widened, "That guy just tried kidnapping you and you're just going to walk away from that?"  
"Why, what do you plan on doing?" Nene asked.  
Ranma smirked but didn't bother to answer. Instead, he hopped off the rooftop and landed in the middle of the street, right by the destroyed Tachikoma.  
"Freeze!" Bateau shouted loudly, instantly recognizing Ranma and training his gun on him.  
Ranma turned his attention toward Bateau, a big smile on his face, "Whatcha gonna do, stop me?" He flipped the large man the middle finger, "See this? You know what that means in this world?"  
"Why you!" Bateau sneered. However, unlike Motoko who usually throws police etiquette into the wind, he didn't squeeze the trigger.  
Ranma was a bit surprised at this. He had believed he had Bateau figured out pretty well but the fact that he didn't fire made it seem otherwise. This led him to realize that it was much harder to gauge a person's general personality if he or she was mostly cybernetic.  
"Lie down on the ground with your hands over your head," Bateau shouted, gun still trained.  
"I've got two words for you, 'Fuck' and 'You'. I'm sure you can do the equation," Ranma taunted.  
"Ranma! What the heck are you doing?" Nene shouted down toward Ranma from the safety of the rooftop.  
Bateau, realizing Nene was on the rooftop of a nearby building, leapt up into the air and landed on said roof. This shocked Ranma because he was completely unaware that Bateau was capable of doing something like that.  
When he realized Bateau was making a break toward Nene, he quickly gave chase, leaping up onto the rooftop as well just a mere second behind Bateau. When he landed on the rooftop, he found himself too far behind Bateau to catch up to him before he could reach Nene.  
Nene shrieked as Bateau reached her and quickly grabbed a hold of her, swinging himself around and behind her, making it seem like he was using her as a human shield.  
"Don't move!" Bateau shouted, his gun still pointed toward Ranma. He was strong enough that whatever Nene tried to do would be of little consequence. "That's low," Ranma said, "Using Nene as some human shield. If you know what's good for you, you'll let her go,"  
"That sounds like a threat," Bateau smirked.  
"Yes, it is in every sense of the word," Ranma said coldly, "Harm one hair on her and I'll kill you and bring you back to life so I can kill you once again,"  
Bateau didn't really understand what Ranma meant by that but it didn't seem to bother him one bit.  
Ranma didn't move though. Little did Bateau know that he had stumbled upon Ranma's only weakness, other people. After a very tension-filled minute, Bateau chuckled. He then pushed Nene forward. She ended up staggering forward where and into Ranma's arms. Once again, this surprised Ranma since he wasn't expecting Bateau to do something like that.  
Nene turned around to face Bateau as well, a bit confused.  
"I'm not the type of person that uses hostages," Bateau stated, "Just to letcha know, if I was that type of person that would do something like that, there would've been nothing you could've done,"  
Ranma narrowed his eyes but said nothing.  
"It seems like Motoko has some kind of personal vendetta against you," Bateau said, "She's very intent on finding out who you are,"  
Ranma shrugged.  
"Well, since I obviously handed your girlfriend back to you unharmed as an act of good faith," Bateau said, which elicited a deep blush from Nene, "Perhaps, as an act of good faith, you'll do that in return,"  
"And what do you want me to do?" Ranma asked.  
"Come with me back to the station," Bateau said.  
Ranma smirked, "Well, you're shit outta luck. I ain't no saint. Just because you did something 'good' for me don't obligate me to do something good in return if I don't feel like it,"  
Bateau found himself amused at Ranma's answer. As chaotic as Ranma's personality was, it seemed like he was also a bit easy to figure out. He was the type of person that took crap from no one, even someone as authoritative and intimidating as Bateau.  
"What could it hurt?" Nene turned asked Ranma.  
"But-" Ranma began.  
"We, actually, Motoko really, just wants to ask you some questions," Bateau added. By now, he had them both figured out. Ranma's weakness was that girl and that girl's weakness seemed to be her naivete. Ranma sighed reluctantly, "Fine, I'll go, but only because you said so,"  
Bateau smirked. Having exception hearing due to augmentations, he had heard Nene comment about leaving. That indicated she had a non-confrontational personality and there was a better chance she could be manipulated. Heck, right now, she was probably unaware that he was already manipulating into convincing Ranma to come with him, something he expected her to do since he set her 'free'. The fact that Ranma stopped when he figured Nene was in danger indicated that she meant quite a bit to him and would most likely do what she said out of fear for her safety.  
"Y'know what? Screw that, I changed my mind," Ranma told Nene.  
Bateau was surprised at just how unpredictable Ranma was. Could someone be so whimsical as Ranma? "No? Why not?" Nene asked.  
Ranma pointed toward Bateau, "I saw him smirk. It's obvious he's got some stupid hidden agenda,"  
Nene turned around toward Bateau as Bateau quickly hid his facial expression. Unfortunately for him, Nene did see a glimpse of him smirking for a brief second.  
"Y'see? It's obvious he was thinking of something," Ranma said, "For that, out of spite, I'm not gonna go just to piss him off. Knowing him, he probably using you to get you to make me to go with him,"  
"You seem to have quite an imagination," Bateau replied, almost wanting to kick himself for that little slip up. Perhaps he was a bit more human than he expected since he did have some emotions, albeit rarely shown.  
Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. Maybe I do, but maybe I don't. But, just in case, I'm not going to go with you since I believe you want me to come with you and was actually trying to use Nene to get me to do so,"  
"Y-you were?" Nene asked, eyes trained on Bateau. Her gaze somehow affected Bateau. It made him feel bad. Perhaps it was because what Ranma said was actually true and he found himself actually having to lie straight to her face that made him feel bad. "Perhaps I'm manipulating you so that you would leave," Bateau said glibly.  
Ranma made an odd gesture with waving his fingers toward Bateau, "Ooh, the tin man is trying to use reverse-psychology on me. Do this shit actually work on people?"  
Bateau said nothing, fighting back his anger.  
Ranma turned his attention elsewhere. After a moment, he turned back toward Bateau.  
"Ah, it seems like your partner just started setting up some super-duper rifle around a mile from here," Ranma pointed toward a high-rise, "Unfortunately, by the time she's done setting up, we'll be long gone,"  
Without saying another word, Ranma grabbed a hold of Nene in his arms, Nene giving a small yelp in surprise, and leapt backward and off the rooftop down to the street below. From there, he ran off, disappearing around a corner.  
Bateau didn't bother to give chase since he knew he wouldn't be able to catch him. Ranma, even if he was carrying Nene, was too fast to be caught.  
'I'm in position,' Bateau heard Motoko's voice.  
'It's too late,' Bateau replied, 'He's long gone. Seems like he somehow knew what you were doing and bolted,'  
'What? How?' Motoko said.  
'How the heck should I know?' Bateau replied. 'Where did he go?' Motoko asked.  
'He went North along Kensai Road, but he turned the corner a few blocks down,' Bateau answered.  
'During your encounter with him, did you find anything out?' Motoko asked.  
'I think I found out his weakness,' Bateau shrugged.  
'Really? What is it?' she asked eagerly.  
'The girl. He's very overprotective of the girl,' Bateau said, feeling bad about relaying such information. It seemed as if Nene was just caught up in this and being brought along for the ride and wherever Ranma took her.  
'I figured that,' Motoko said, 'We'll use her as a hostage if need be,'  
'Do you like this guy or something?' Bateau asked, 'You've gotta have the hots for this guy if you seem so intent on chasing him so much,'  
At that moment, a 50mm shell sailed right by his head, coming so close that he felt the wind from it as it passed.  
'Care to make another crack like that while my rifle's set up and my crosshairs are on your head?' Motoko asked, her voice cold.  
Bateau chuckled meekly.

new stuff 2/25

Ranma and Nene walked down the street together.  
"Um," Nene began.  
"Hm?" Ranma asked. He wondered if Nene was going to ask if it was prudent that they be walking around considering they were probably only a couple of blocks away from where they left Bateau.  
"Are we going to be staying on this world overnight?" she asked, "It's getting dark so if we're gonna stay overnight, we should start looking for a place to stay,"  
Ranma said, "Yeah, you're right. We should find a motel or something,"  
They came to a stop in front of large building. It didn't take long for them to realize that it was some kind of extravagant-looking hotel. Ranma jerked a thumb toward the building, "Let's stay here. This place looks like it has a vacancy,"  
Nene gulped, wondering exactly how the hotel accommodations would be.  
She followed Ranma into the hotel and up to the reception desk, which was manned by an eight-armed android. "We'd like to get a hotel room for the both of us," Ranma said.  
Nene blushed. It seems like she and Ranma would be sharing a hotel room together. She had never stayed in a hotel room with Ranma together and couldn't help but wonder what might be in store for the night. She quickly banished her thoughts, feeling guilty for thinking such things.  
"Hey, get yer mind outta the gutter," Ranma smirked, "I'm getting us a hotel room together because that's the only one they have,"  
"How do you know that they only one room?" she asked.  
Ranma smirked, "C'mon, I've been alive long enough to know how things work. In this giant building, there's only one room vacant. And not only that, it's the honeymoon suite,"  
"Y-you're kidding me, right?" Nene blushed.  
Ranma turned toward the android, "Am I right?"  
"Yes, you are," the receptionist said in a female voice, "Would you and your wife like that suite? It's the best one we've got,"  
Ranma chuckled, "How come I'm not surprised?"  
Nene seemed confused.  
"Let's just say that situations like this ALWAYS happen to me so I'm not even going to question it," Ranma shrugged, "I'm so used to it that I'd be more surprised if such a situation was different,"  
"Um, if it makes you uncomfortable, we can always go to another hotel," Nene commented.  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nah. It's gonna be the same everywhere else. I already know it,"  
"Oh," she said, wondering if she should be very happy or worried.  
Ranma turned toward the android, "We'll take it,"  
Somehow, Nene felt very happy.

Nene and Ranma walked down the street together once again. Now that they had a place to stay, they still had quite a bit of time left before either of them would get tired. Actually, more along the lines of when Nene got tired.  
"So, what should we do?" Nene asked, trying to think of something, anything, "The night is still young,"  
There were so many ideas passing through her mind on what to do. She heard that going to dance clubs were really fun, especially if she went with a guy. It made Nene wonder if she was cut out for dance clubs. Ranma scratched his head, "I'm not too sure what we can do. You said you wanted to check out some internet caf place if they exist on this world, right? Wanna go look for one now or later?"  
Nene shrugged, "I guess that sounds like a good idea," Ranma stopped when he saw a movie theatre across the street.  
"Hey, you want to go see a movie at the theatre?" Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder.  
Nene said, "Go see a movie? But you don't like movies,"  
Ranma paused for a moment, surprised at the comment, "How'd you know that?"  
"I remember said that once a while ago," Nene commented, "It was during the time when the movie 'Dawning of Immortality' came out. That was about a year ago,'  
Ranma scratched his head, "That movie name sounds familiar,"  
"Yeah, it's a movie based on a book trilogy," Nene said, "The second chapter actually came out about a week ago, 'Day of Immortality'. The third one comes out the following year, 'Night of Immortality'. Anyway, I remember you didn't want to go see that movie because, first off, you don't care that much about movies, and secondly, you mentioned how the only movie you would watch is if they made a movie about what you've been through,"  
Ranma said, "Y'know what? I do remember saying that a while ago, to Shinji. What, did he tell you that?"  
Nene nodded, "Yeah. I was actually about to go see the second movie and was even going to ask you if you wanted to go see it, but then I remembered you didn't like movies so I never bothered asking. However, considering the turn of events and the fact that we are now on a different world, it seems far more interesting than some movies,"  
Ranma smiled warmly, "Y'know what? You're the first person that remembered that. What's funny is that you're also the first person that didn't ask me that,"  
"Huh?" Nene asked.  
"You were working that day," Ranma stated, "Anyway, all the girls at least at one point in time, asked me out. Y'know, the usual, a dinner and a movie, particularly, that movie you mentioned. That's why it sounded familiar, because I heard its name before,"  
Nene was silent for a moment, wondering how that should be interpreted. If Ranma didn't like movies, then why did he ask if she wanted to go see a movie? Was he willing to do something he didn't like if it meant she would enjoy herself?  
Nene couldn't help but blush at what it could possibly mean.

Nene regarded the computer screen in pure confusion.  
"Something the matter?" Ranma asked curiously.  
"Yeah, how the heck do I interface with this computer?" she asked, noticing that there was no keyboard or mouse for her to use.  
Ranma and Nene were in a random Internet caf . Actually, it wasn't much more than a simple coffee house with two ancient computers located in the back of the store. To Nene, the computers looked more advanced than anything she had ever seen. But to that world, it was considered obsolete.  
Ranma noticed a couple of tiny ports on the right side of the monitor and pointed, "I think you're supposed to link up to the computer through that thingie. Remember what the waitress said earlier?"  
Nene nodded, "I think you're right. But I don't have one of those augments so there's no way I can use it,"  
Ranma turned his attention toward the female cashier. She looked very much human save for, cybernetic arms. It made him wonder what the heck was with this world and cybernetic arms. From his point of view, it looked as if cybernetic arms were to be adorned proudly like jewelry. Perhaps it was this world's version of jewelry.  
"May I help you?" the girl asked warmly.  
"Yeah, you have a keyboard and mouse for that computer in back?" Ranma asked, jerking his thumb toward Nene.  
The girl looked at Ranma, a bit confused, "Keyboard? Mouse?"  
An old patron that was standing nearby looking for what to order said, "Why're you asking her for something like that?"  
Ranma turned toward the man, confused, "Oh?"  
"She's a young 'un. She ain't gonna know what those things are," the man said, "Those things became obsolete over half a century ago,"  
Ranma quickly said, "Hm, I guess you're right,"  
The man turned toward the girl, "Ask the owner. He'll know what those things are. I'm sure he still has those lying around somewhere in the store,"  
The girl quickly headed off to seek the owner.  
"Say, sonny, why do you need to go using a keyboard and mouse?" the old man asked. He extended his hand as this small chord came out of his palm, "What, your interface jack broken?"  
Ranma gave a slight smile, "Sorry, but not quite. I'm completely human. I don't have cybernetic augmentations,"  
The man's eyes widened, "Really? Wow, never figured I'd ever see one again. The last time I saw a complete adult human was around thirty years ago. You things are rare as hell,"  
Ranma gave a meek smile, "You mention that as if I've got some abnormality,"  
"Say, is it hard?" the elderly man, "Y'know, being completely human? Dontcha gotta worry about bumping into walls and such and breaking a bone?"  
Ranma chuckled, "Perhaps compared to cyborgs, humans aren't as tough. But then again, humans aren't that weak,"  
The elderly man shrugged, "If you say so, boy,"  
At that moment, the girl came back, holding with her a keyboard and a mouse, "It seems like the owner did have some stored away down in the storage room. Is this what you were looking for, sir?"  
Ranma smiled as he accepted the two devices, "Yes, quite. I'll have these back in not time. I promise to take good care of 'em,"  
"Sure, it's no problem," the girl smiled, "And I've never seen those things before so I have no idea if they're important or how they work. I'll take your word for it that you'll bring it back in working condition,"  
"Man, I feel so old," the old man commented toward Ranma, "It puts things in perspective when things from your day in age aren't even heard about by future generations,"  
Ranma gave a slight smile, "I guess you have a point. Anyway, thanks for the help. It was nice talking to ya,"  
"Likewise, sonny," the elderly man said.  
Ranma headed back to where Nene, carrying the two devices.  
"Check it out," Ranma smiled, "Look what I got,"  
Nene smiled happily, "Alright! Way to go,"  
Ranma handed the keyboard and mouse to Nene. He watched her as she proceeded to hook them up to the computer via the interface jacks next to the monitor. Before long, the screen changed slightly as a window opened up to show that the computer was in the process of detecting the new devices.  
"Hey, I've got a question," Ranma asked from out of the blue.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"You know what a music CD is?" he asked.  
"What's that?" she asked curiously.  
"Damn, I feel so old," Section-9, SC-9 for short, headquarters was a section within a massive government building. In a sense, if the building was A.D. Police Headquarters, then SC-9 would be considered the S.W.A.T section of that building. It was located near the rear of the building, by the warehouse storage section. This was because that was where all those Tachikomas and SC-9 vehicles. Motoko entered her office, which was located within the storage warehouse, seriously pissed off after having spent a great deal of time searching nearby restaurants for Ranma and coming up with nothing. She was very angry because it was as if Ranma was actively defying her by paying her no mind.  
"Motoko-sempai seems angry," a Tachikoma commented in a very cutesy voice. It was very hard to get angry at a Tachikoma if one heard what it sounded like.  
"Why are you here?" Motoko snapped back.  
"I just got back from patrol like you said," the Tachikoma answered.  
"Well go out and patrol some more," she said.  
"Okie dokie," it said before heading off.  
Motoko sighed as she sat down on her seat. Even though she knew her body would not physically get tired, she sure felt tired. It was as if chasing Ranma and being constantly angry was sapping her energy reserves.  
"I think you should just swallow your pride and just leave it be," Bateau said, entering her office, sitting down on a nearby chair, "This personal vendetta's gone too far,"  
Motoko smirked, "Hey, you didn't hear me complain when you actively went after that known sex-offender and killed him. I just turned a blind eye to your actions so do the same with me this time around,"  
Bateau sighed, "Fine fine. I figured you were gonna bring that up sooner or later. I'll just leave you be,"  
"Good," Motoko said.  
"I'm gonna go get some coffee, you want some?" Bateau asked.  
"Sure," she said. All of a sudden, Motoko's face suddenly became serious, "What the fuck!  
"What's the matter?" Bateau asked.  
"Someone's trying to brain-dive into my brain!" she said.  
"What? Who?" Bateau asked.  
Motoko reached behind her neck where she pulled out two small wire from a small jack located right on the base of the back of her neck. Pulling the wires out, she handed one to Bateau, who attached the wire to the back of his neck. Motoko then attached the wire to her terminal, a highly advanced computer. The wire that Motoko interfaced with Bateau allowed Bateau the ability to see firsthand what was going on within Motoko's brain without her needing to tell him what was going on. In a sense, it allowed him to be an outside observer of what was going on within her. The wire that was attached to the computer allowed the computer the ability to trace the brain-dive, or hack as most people consider it, back to the original source. "Let's branch this bastard and find out what he's up to," Motoko said, "I'm gonna find out from where he's doing the brain-dive and I'm gonna give him a brain-burn that'll do nothing short of killing him. Then we'll go get him and cart him off to some faraway place and find out why he was snooping around in my brain in the first place,"  
"Gee, dontcha think you're going a bit easy on him?" Bateau said sarcastically.

"What's that?" Ranma asked, pointing toward the screen, confused at what he was seeing. All he was seeing was nothing but binary code, a combination of ones and zeros filling the screen.  
"I'm trying to figure it out," Nene said, "I've never used this computer before so I'm just fumbling through it,"  
"So, do you think we can find information of Motoko and Bateau?" Ranma asked, "You think they have some kinda website or something?"  
Nene said, "I don't know. I don't thinking this world's Internet is much like the Internet back at our world. Right now, I have no idea where I am on the Internet. I don't even know if I'm viewing this world's equivalent of the world wide web,"  
Ranma said, "Well, it doesn't really matter. I was just curious if we can find info on them. Let's just search around for other things instead, like information on what kinda world this place is,"  
Nene said, "Well, let's just say that this world is far more advanced than I could possibly believe. The 'hard drive', or whatever storage device it is on this computer, has enough storage capacity to hold our world's entire Internet,"  
"Huh?" Ranma asked, "I'm not all that good with computers. Is that a lot?"  
Nene nodded emphatically, "Yes. All the information on the Internet on our world can be stored on this computer,"  
"Wow, that must be a lot," Ranma commented.  
Nene started typing on the keyboard, "I'm gonna try checking around some more on who Motoko Kusanagi is. Maybe if we know more about her, it could explain why she wants to kill you,"  
"I think she's pissed off because she thinks I was groping her, when in reality, I was trying to push her sleep pressure points," Ranma gave a slight smile, "How was I to know that she had some kinda cybernetic body and that pressure points don't work on her,"  
"Whatever you say," Nene said.  
"I'm telling y'the truth!" Ranma said quickly.  
Nene giggled but continued on typing.  
At that moment, the screen suddenly went black.  
"What the?" Ranma asked.  
"I don't know," Nene said, "I think the computer just crashed,"  
"What do we do now?" he asked curiously.  
"That's no problem, I'll just reboot,"

Motoko smirked as she pulled the wires from Bateau and the computer.  
"Damn, I can't believe you just did that," Bateau said, "You just did a complete Ghost White on the hacker. Why? Now we can't question him. Even if we go and get him, he won't even have a Ghost. He's now a vegetable,"  
"Hey," Motoko said, "How would you like it if people snoop around in your mind?"  
Bateau shrugged, "I guess you have a point. But still, did you hafta go that far? The hacker was just looking around. It wasn't as if he was diving farther into your brain and all the way into your Ghost,"  
"Don't matter," Motoko said, "You don't brain-dive into my brain unless you have my permission,"  
Bateau chuckled, "Too bad it wasn't Net-Master snooping around. Imagine, through some freak accident, he hacks into your brain only to get nuked like that. Man, y'know what that means? We could finally retire and call it quits,"  
Motoko said, "It wasn't him. There's no way Net-Master would get caught in some attack barrier like that. As powerful as the one I used was, Net-Master wouldn'tve gotten caught in something that took that long to implement,"  
"You're sure putting Net-Master on a high pedestal, dontcha think?" Bateau smirked.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes toward him.  
Bateau held his hands up defensively, "I was only joking around,"  
Motoko got up off her seat, "Well, we've traced the source back to a coffee house just a mile north of here. Let's go get the body,"  
"Okay," Bateau said.  
Before Motoko and Bateau managed to make it out of their office, Motoko quickly stopped, "What the fuck?"  
"What now?" he asked.  
"He's brain-diving into me again!" "You seem to be getting the hang of this," Ranma commented.  
"Yeah, I think I am," Nene said confidently. She knew she could use computers really well, even if it was a computer on a completely world. Computers on this world, to her, worked much the same as the computers in her world.  
"Where are you now?" Ranma asked, referring to where Nene was on the Internet.  
Nene shrugged, "I'm not too sure. But I did manage to pull up some information on Motoko like requested,"  
"Like what?" he asked, somewhat interested.  
"She must make a lot of money because it seems like she resides in several addresses," Nene said, "Also, it seems like she works for and is the head of this government division called Section-9. It's some kinda anti-cybernetic terrorism division,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Anti-cybernetic terrorism division? Seems kinda odd why the heck is she constantly coming after us. We're human. Or at least not cybernetic,"  
Nene shrugged.  
The screen flickered.  
"Oh oh," Nene smirked, "Looks like this computer's about to crash again. Let's stop that from happening,"  
Nene typed on the keyboard a few times. All of a sudden, the flicker went away.  
"Whatcha do?" Ranma asked.  
"I just allocated some memory," she said, not wanting to confuse Ranma with technical terms, "Let's just say that what seemed to have made the computer crash the first time around was a sudden burst of information coming in and the computer being unable to handle it. I just set it so that the computer could handle it. That's all,"  
"Wow, you're smart," Ranma commented.  
Nene blushed, "T-thanks. It's nothing that hard to do. It just seems like it to someone unfamiliar to computers. That's all," "I guess I should learn computers one day," Ranma smiled.  
"Ooh, there it goes again, another potential system crash," Nene commented, typing on her keyboard, "Nothing to worry about. Fixed. Hm, I'll set the computer to allocate memory automatically so I don't hafta worry about crashing anymore and can concentrate on surfing the Internet more,"  
"So, you find anything else out about Motoko?" he asked.  
"Yeah. Check it out, this place even lists her likes and dislikes," Nene pointed.

"They're almost upon my Ghost!" Motoko said in a very panicked voice, "Every time I set up an attack-barrier, it gets bypassed,"  
"Is this the same guy as before?" Bateau asked, serious concern in his voice, "How's that possible? You did a Ghost White on him. He should be a vegetable right now,"  
"I don't know," Motoko said, "He might've dubbed himself at the very last second before the Ghost White. But how's that possible, the trace indicates that he's still performing a brain-dive from the very same machine!"  
"It's got to be Net-Master," Bateau commented, "Only he's managed to bypass attack barriers with ease,"  
"No, it isn't," Motoko said, "I've spent ten years chasing that guy and I know him really well. Even he doesn't work this efficiently. Attack barriers slow him down temporarily. With this one, it's as if attack barriers don't even work!"  
Bateau quickly disconnected himself from Motoko and rushed for the door, "I'm heading for the coffee shop!"  
"Hurry! This guy's already on the personal information of my Ghost! It'll only be a matter of time before he reaches the top secrets that's stored!"

"Whoa, Motoko's over a hundred years old!" Ranma's eyes widened, "Damn, she's basically as old as me!"  
Nene gulped, "It also says she's killed over a hundred and fifty people,"  
"Yeah, but it seems like they were all bad people so who cares," Ranma commented.  
"It doesn't matter," Nene said nervously, "It means she's a killer,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Gee, that never crossed my mind, not even when she tried to shoot me in the head. I'm sure she wasn't intent on killing me by shooting me in the head,"  
"We should stay away from her," Nene commented, "She's dangerous,"  
"Actually, from my point of view, she's relatively harmless," Ranma said.  
"But from my point of view-" Nene said loudly.  
"Don't worry," Ranma said, placing a hand on Nene's shoulder, "You have nothing to be worried about. I'm here with you. I'll make sure nothing happens to you,"  
Nene rubbed at her sides, "And what about when I almost got captured? And when that Bateau guy reached me before you on the rooftop?"  
Ranma said, "I'm sorry about that. It was my fault. I underestimated them. It's because he's cybernetic that I underestimated what he was capable of. However, now that I've been surprised more than once by what he's capable of, I now know to expect the unexpected,"  
That seemed to help calm Nene's nerves.  
"Say, rather than snoop around and perhaps find more information about Motoko and Bateau to make you even more worried, how about we just call it quits and go do something else?" Ranma asked.  
"Like what?" Nene asked, figuring that it wasn't all that bad an idea. "Let's go eat," Ranma grinned.  
"How come I'm not surprised that you were going to say that," Nene sighed.  
"How about it?"  
Nene shrugged, "Okay. I see no problem in that, even thought we DID eat not even two hours ago,"  
"Cool," Ranma said, "All right, let's disconnect and give the keyboard and mouse back and head out,"  
"Okay," she said, "but before I do, I wanna do something,"  
"What?" he asked.  
Nene began typing on the keyboard, the characters showing up on the screen that Ranma didn't understand what it meant. When she was done, she disconnected the keyboard and mouse and shut the computer off.  
"Whatcha type?" Ranma asked.  
"I was just leaving a mark," Nene said, "Something along the lines of 'Nene was here',"  
Ranma smirked, "Oh, like the messages people leave the desks I used to see when I used to go to high school?"  
"Yeah," she said, "It's just something I always do. I don't know why. I guess it's one of my quirks,"  
In her office, Motoko's face was pale as she sat in front of the computer screen. There was a reason why she seemed so disturbed. One was because someone had brain-dove into her mind and got a glimpse at some very personal information about her. Another one was a message purposely left behind, like a form of graffiti. It was a line of code she remembered very well for she had seen it first ten years ago. It was the mark left behind by none other than the person she had been working ten years at apprehending.  
She looked at the screen, recognizing those characters, wondering what it meant. Was it some form of algorithm? What did it mean and why has she been seeing it for the past ten years?  
Motoko had just been hacked by the entity that she had been chasing after for the past ten years, Net-Master because she instantly recognized the mark left behind after she had been hacked.  
'Ph34r m3. l33t h4x0r, N3N3, W45 h34r'

new stuff 2/26

Nene and Ranma walked down the street together.  
"So, where would you like to go eat?" Ranma asked Nene.  
Nene gave a shy smile, "Honestly, I'm really not all that hungry. I ate a short while ago, afterall. And so did you,"  
"I may have eaten recently, but I'm still hungry," Ranma commented.  
Nene shrugged, "Well, it doesn't bother me where we eat. Still, considering how much I ate already, I really question the effectiveness of your theory about losing weight,"  
Ranma said, "Don't worry about. You'll be in for a pleasant surprise before long,"  
Nene said nothing, wanting to keep an open mind.  
Ranma glanced over his shoulder where he caught sight of a car speeding right past him and skidding around a corner. The quickly glance at the car allowed Ranma the opportunity to realize who was driving, Bateau.  
"Hm, I wonder what he's in such a hurry," Ranma said to himself.  
"What was that?" Nene asked.  
"Nah, I was just thinking aloud," Ranma said, "It's not important,"  
"Okay," Nene disregarded Ranma's last comment.  
Ranma pointed toward a nearby restaurant, "Let's eat there,"  
Nene shrugged, "Okay,"

Nene felt stuffed as she and Ranma emerged from the restaurant. Their meal had lasted about thirty minutes. As they emerged, they caught sight of flashing lights from around the corner.  
"Hm, I wonder what's going on," Nene asked curious.  
"Let's go check it out," Ranma said, "We're not really doing anything anyway,"  
The two of them walked around the corner. They spotted a familiar looking car stopped in front of a familiar looking store.  
"Hey, that looks like one of those cars you stuffed Motoko in," Nene commented, pointing toward the parked police car with its lights flashing.  
Ranma shrugged, "It's probably a 'Section-9' car I guess,"  
He recognized it as the same car he saw Bateau driving earlier when he sped by, before he and Nene stopped to get some food.  
"Seems so," Nene commented, "And it's stopped in front of the coffee shop, too,"  
Nene grew nervous, "Y-you don't think it's because of something we did, do you? Do you think there's some kind of warrant out for us and this was where we were last seen?"  
"So what if there is a warrant for us," Ranma seemed at ease, "What the heck can they do? I thought the same thing as you but you don't see me wanting to make a break for it, just in case,"  
Nene gulped, "But I don't want a warrant out for me,"  
Ranma turned his attention toward someone standing nearby in the crowd surrounding the store, "Y'know what happened?"  
The man said, "Not really too sure. However, it seems like the coffee house has now become a crime scene,"  
"For what?" Ranma asked.  
"Not too sure," the man answered, "I hope the authorities wrap things up soon. I like the shop's coffee, too,"  
"Thanks for your help," Ranma said.  
"We should get going," Nene said nervously.  
Ranma smiled, "Don't worry. There's nothing to worry about. There's nothing anyone can do to us that you hafta be worried about,"  
"Still," Nene said softly.  
Ranma sighed, "All right. If it really bothers you, then I guess we should get going,"  
At that moment, Motoko emerged from the store, looking seriously shocked. She couldn't believe what she had heard. Having questioned the patrons about who had been last seen using the computer in the back of the shop, she was shocked to realize that the individuals matching their descriptions was none other Ranma and Nene.  
Bateau emerged from the shop, 'Seems like they're one and the same,'  
Because there were people around, they spoke to one another silently on an encrypted line. Talking to one another using their mouths made it possible that people could hear what they were talking about. He knew exactly what Motoko was thinking about.  
'How's that possible?' she said, 'She's human. Are you sure the patrons didn't see Ranma using the computer?'  
Motoko was positive that Nene was human, which made it impossible for her to be Net-Master. However, she had no idea exactly who Ranma was which made it a possibility that he had been the one pulling the strings.  
Bateau shook his head, 'No. Everyone there consistently says the same thing, that only the girl was using the computer. You think he could've been controlling her?' 'How?' Motoko said, 'It's not like she could be Ghost-hacked and manipulated. She's human, afterall, so that that's out of the question. He also didn't have some weapon pointing at her and telling her what to do. All the patrons assumed they were a couple and even acted like one, so that must mean that the girl was doing everything on her own free will,'  
Bateau whistled, 'Wow, and I've thought I've seen everything. I think finding out that a human girl is Net-Master definitely takes the cake. Heck, even finding out the Puppet-Master was a program-born Ghost wasn't quite as surprising as this,'  
He smirked. Whoever Nene was, finding this out about her made him very interested in knowing more about her. The fact that Nene, a human, was capable of even doing something like emulating Net-Master, let alone turning out to actually be that person, made Bateau realize that it was impossible to judge a book by its cover. 'Ha ha, next thing we know, that guy accompanying her is God,' Bateau laughed aloud.  
Motoko didn't seem amused at the joke, 'This no time for jokes. We have to find them,'  
'Well, I guess this gives us more of a solid reason to pursue the two of them rather than for personal reasons,' Bateau commented, 'However, what has me confused was that you were chasing Net-Master before when you bumped into that Ranma and Nene couple. If you were chasing Net-Master at the time, how is it possible for them to be the same person if you were chasing one when you bumped into her?'  
Motoko rubbed at her temples, 'That's something I've been trying to figure out ever since I came to the realization that there's a chance that the girl is Net-  
Master,'  
'You know that it can't be some Ghost-dub of Net-Master that you were chasing because Ghost-dubbing always results in the original dying," Bateau said, "And if there's a chance that Ghost-dubbing is possible without the original dying, then this world's going to hell in a hand basket,'  
Bateau was right with that comment. Ghost-dubbing was basically copying one's Ghost into another body. The problem was that doing so usually killed off the original from where the Ghost is dubbed. If it was possible to Ghost-dub without killing off the original, an army of clones could be easily created. Creating an army of Ghosted clones was different from creating an army of non-Ghosted clones. Ghosted clones had a sense of individuality and could act on its own. Non-Ghosted clones could not. To put things in perspective, an army of soldiers were much more powerful than an army of soulless robots. Sure, some people might disagree, but they would not be so quick to argue if those soldiers possessed the exact same skill and power and reflexes and lack of emotion as the robot. One key advantage was that the soldiers weren't exact copies like the robots. This meant they were not susceptible to being wiped out completely by, say, a single virus. If Ghost-  
dubbing didn't killing off the original, every time the Ghost is dubbed into another body, there is some form of variation, even if it is considered negligible. 'If it's possible that you can Ghost-dub without the original being killed off, then we've got a lot of things to worry about,' Motoko commented, 'I don't want to even begin to think of the possibilities of what could happen to this world if that was possible,'  
A short distance away, Nene leaned toward Ranma and nudged him, "Why are they just standing there?"  
Ranma shrugged, "How the heck should I know? I can't listen in on what they're thinking,"  
Because of what Nene found out during the brief time she was checking out what kind of person Motoko was, Ranma and Nene were both now aware that Motoko and Bateau could communicate each other's thought to one another without having to actually speak. Although they didn't really understand exactly how, they considered it some form of telepathy.  
"They look really worried about something," Nene commented, noticing their visages.  
Ranma shrugged, "So? It's probably none of our business anyway,"  
"Yeah, but dontcha find it strange that they're standing in front of the very same shop where we were surfing the Internet?" Nene asked.  
Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Not really. Even if it does have something to do with us, they're probably assuming it's something really sinister and blowing it all outta proportion,"  
"I wonder what it is," she said.  
Ranma said, "Dunno. Don't really care. Let's just get going. Frankly, I don't wanna deal with 'em if they spot us," "I guess you're right. Let's get going," she yawned, "As exciting as today was, I'm actually starting to get tired,"  
"Alright, let's head back to the hotel," he said.  
As the two of them turned around to walk off, Motoko happened to have glanced toward the surrounding crowd and caught sight of Ranma's retreating back.  
'Ranma's in the crowd!' Motoko quickly said to Bateau.  
'What? He is?' Bateau quickly started scanning the crowd.  
"Freeze!" Motoko shouted in Ranma's direction, pulling her gun out and firing two shots into the air before bringing it down and aiming toward Ranma's back. To her expectations, the crowd quickly fell to the ground, covering their heads.  
Ranma and Nene, hearing her voice and the gunshots, turned around to see what all the commotion was.  
"Great, just great," Ranma said sourly, "She spotted us," "Drop to the ground!" Motoko shouted loudly.  
Ranma regarded Motoko for a moment. Nene looked very nervous as she quickly glanced back and forth between Ranma and the gun. As safe as she felt being within such close proximity to Ranma, seeing a gun pointed in her general direction was nerve-racking. She gulped as Bateau also trained his gun toward the two of them.  
"You talking to us?" Ranma pointed toward himself.  
"Drop to the fucking ground!" Motoko shouted very loudly.  
"Nope," Ranma said.  
"This is your last warning!" Motoko shouted.  
"So?" Ranma shrugged.  
Motoko gritted her teeth. What the hell was wrong with this guy? He showed no fear at having a gun pointed right at him. Anyone hearing how angry as was right now would fear at least some sense of fear.  
"If you don't drop to the floor," Motoko began, "I'm going to shoot!"  
"Ooh, I'm scared now," Ranma waved his fingers toward Motoko. He grinned as he pointed toward the car situated in front of the coffee store, "Look at that, we have here another car. Guess which trunk I'm gonna stuff you in yet again?"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes in contempt.  
"Go away," Ranma made a shooing motion.  
"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Bateau said, "We can't let you go,"  
"I've got another equation for you," Ranma said, "'Tough' and 'Shit'. I'll leave you to add those two words together,"  
"Why you!" Bateau sneered.  
Ranma picked up two rocks and threw one each at Motoko and Bateau before either of them could reach. The rocks hit their respective weapons, knocking it out of their hands.  
"What the-" Motoko was shocked.  
Before she knew what had happened, she found herself grabbed by Ranma. When she was finally able to realize what had happened, she found herself tucked under Ranma's arm, her arms at her side. She was also able to see Bateau in the exact same predicament.  
"Looks like it's off to the trunk for the two of you,"

new stuff 2/28

Nene had a big blush on her cheeks as she looked at the giant bed.  
Ranma nudged at her side, "What're you so surprised about? Ya knew that this is the honeymoon suite,"  
"Still," she said nervously.  
Ranma and Nene was in the honeymoon suite that they had rented earlier in the night. This was the first time they were seeing it. The room was cozy looking while well furnished. Nene knew that she didn't need to check the bathroom to know that it had a Jacuzzi in it. "I hope the sheets are clean," Ranma joked, hoping it would help lighten the somewhat awkward feeling of the room.  
Nene giggled slightly, loosening up.  
Ranma rubbed at his shoulders slightly. He jerked a thumb toward the bathroom door, "Y'wanna go take a shower first or should I?"  
"It doesn't matter," Nene said, "If you want, you can go first,"  
"Okay," Ranma said, "Man, now that we're here, I kinda feel bad that it never crossed my mind to stop at some clothing store to get some new clothes. I guess it kinda defeats the purpose of even taking a shower if we're gonna be wearing the same clothes after we're done,"  
Nene shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me. I have no problems with wearing the same clothes more one day,"  
Ranma regarded Nene in surprised, "R-Really?"  
Nene blushed slightly, feeling a bit self-conscious of his gaze, "Not really. Um, I've done that more than once on occasions, wearing the same clothes for more than one day. There's nothing wrong with that,"  
Ranma gave her a warm smile, "Didja know you're the first one of all the girls I know that didn't have a problem with that,"  
"Of course, I'd be against it if you rolled around in, say, dog poop, and wearing those clothes again," Nene added shyly.  
Ranma laughed heartily, "I agree,"  
Nene wondered if she was doing something right. Ranma was laughing. Ranma rarely laughed and it was quite a sight to behold seeing him laugh. She believed she had a really good sense of humor, but never had she figured it would make Ranma laugh. Ranma had some weird sense of humor that none of the girls could seem to make him laugh often. "All right, I'll go shower then," Ranma said, heading to the bathroom.  
Nene regarded the bathroom for a moment before sitting down on the edge of the large bed. She wondered how their sleeping accommodations were going to be. Ranma was, in essence, a gentlemen, so there was a good chance he would choose to sleep on the floor while she got the bed. But then again, that seemed a bit wrong for him to have to do that just so she wouldn't be all that uncomfortable knowing that he was one the same bed with her.  
She wondered if telling Ranma her feelings now was a good time as any. But then again, in a situation like that, who knows what could happen from there on.  
Nene giggled as she put her hands to her cheeks.  
She became a bit somber when she remembered Ranma's comments back then. Ranma wasn't interested in being with someone. She remembered how he mentioned how it kind of annoyed him that all the girls proclaimed their love for him that day when she was stuck working.  
If she said anything, then she would be just like the other girls, just wanting to let their feelings be known, not caring about how awkward it would make Ranma feel.  
"But I really do want to tell him," she said to herself, wondering if she really did have the confidence and courage to say those words.  
It was such a perfect opportunity, too. It was just her and Ranma, no one else around to interrupt. She could say what she wanted to say and could hear Ranma's reaction.  
"Nene, check this out!" Ranma emerged from the bathroom, a big smile on his face.  
"W-what is it?" she asked, blushing slightly.  
"They've got a Jacuzzi," he jerked his thumb, "That's so cool,"  
Nene laughed, "Yeah, we're living the good life,"  
"Quite," Ranma agreed.  
"Check to see if we might even have two-ply toilet paper," Nene commented, "If they do, then you know that this is a five-star hotel,"  
Ranma regarded Nene for a moment before he gave her a genuine smile and laughed. He found it really endearing that she could make him laugh. He rarely laugh and Nene seemed to have a knack for making him laugh.  
Still laughing, Ranma went to take his bath.

Nene sat in the Jacuzzi. What was very odd was that she felt very tense as she sat in it.  
She was still wondering what the sleeping accommodations would be. She cast a glance toward the door. It was slightly ajar. It was an odd habit of hers, not locking the bathroom door. Perhaps it was because she lived alone so she never did find the need to lock her bathroom door back then and the habit carried over to now.  
She blushed slightly as the thought of Ranma entering the bathroom. This was the perfect opportunity for something like that to happen.  
"Mind if I join you?" Ranma would most likely said. He would most likely be in one of those complimentary bathrobes that the hotel supplied.  
"Um, sure," she would reply.  
From there, Ranma would join her in the Jacuzzi. He would have to disrobe where she would most likely catch a glimpse of his nakedness before he slipped into the bubble-filled warm Jacuzzi water wither. From there, they would just relax together and indulge in conversation.  
What the hell, why the heck would we just talk, Nene thought. She wondered if there was something wrong with her because she wasn't having some wickedly hentai fantasy at the moment. All she could think of was that they would just be sitting together talking and doing much else.  
Nene blushed as she thought about Ranma from out of the blue saying something like "Nene, there's something I hafta tell you. For a long time, I've been in love with you,"  
She sighed. There was no chance something like that would happen to her. Something like that only happened in romance novels. She felt really sad actually. Why did she have to fall for the one guy like Ranma. He was the kind that would never settle down. He was a free spirit and would never allow himself to be tied down. "I've decided I want to settle down," Nene fantasized Ranma saying, "No more adventuring for me. I would give up my adventuring ways to be with you,"  
Nene giggled like a schoolgirl. That would be so cool to hear. That would make her day. No, that would make her life.  
There was a knock at the door. Because it was slightly ajar and opened inward, the knocking ended up making the door swing wide open.  
Nene gave a quick yelp of surprise as she ducked under the bubbles up to her neck, "I-I'm still in the tub!"  
Ranma's didn't bother to peek his head in. Instead, he just leaned up against the doorjamb as he reached back to grab the doorknob, "Sorry about that. I didn't know your door was ajar,"  
"I'll be out," Nene said.  
"Okay," Ranma said, concern in his voice, "It's just that you've been in the tub for a while and I was getting worried that you'll get dizzy if you stay in there too long,"  
Nene was silent for a moment, surprised at just how caring Ranma could be. Ranma's personality was so surprising, even now. For a man that could most likely take over this world if he wanted to, his concerns lied elsewhere, that being her well-being at the moment. It was very heartwarming to know that Ranma had genuine care for her.  
"Um, I'll be fine," she said softly, "The water's not even that hot and I'm actually used to being in a tub much longer without suffering from heat stroke,"  
This was very true. Nene liked to take baths a lot. This was because she had this habit of reading in the bathtub. What she usually read ranged from science fiction novel to manga graphic novel to computer magazines. Because she did it so often, she had involuntarily built up a tolerance to sitting in the tub of hot water for prolonged periods of time.  
"Well, I was just checking up," Ranma commented, "It's just that you were in there so long that I figured you were reading some entire book or something,"  
"Huh?"  
"Dontcha like read in the bathtub, or in this case, the Jacuzzi?" Ranma asked, his back still toward her. Little did Nene know that, of all the girls that had been in this situation, she was the only one he didn't bother looking at. Perhaps it was because she felt more insecure than the other girls and he knew it. But then again, it could be more of a show of respect. Only Ranma knew.  
Nene wondered how Ranma knew that. She never told anyone that. This was because she was pretty sure everyone would view her oddly since, in essence, people considered taking baths as bathing in one's own filth. They don't seem to understand that there was a difference between taking a bath and just soaking. She liked soaking and took showers as well. A bath to her was more along the lines as a sense of relaxation, not cleansing oneself. She usually took a shower for a few minutes after soaking in a bath for a while, before she stepped out.  
"How'd you know I read in the bathtub?" she asked, knowing she had never told Ranma or anyone else for that matter.  
Ranma chuckled slightly, "That's easy. When I visited your old apartment, before you moved into your new one, which I'd like to check out one day, I noticed you have books right outside of the door. They're watered-worn around the edges so I assume you read them when in the tub and didn't care if your fingers were wet when you turn the pages,"  
Nene was silent for a moment. Was Ranma that good at observation? It was uncanny how he could hit something right on the dot based on what little information he got.  
"Um, you're right," she said, "I can't believe you figured something that out just from something like that,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Actually, the real reason is because I do that, too, read in the tub. So I'm very aware of the edges of the books or magazines becoming water-damaged around the edges,"  
Nene was silent as she contemplated this. She never knew that about Ranma, that he took baths, let alone reads in the bathtub. It made her secretly wonder that they're more alike than reality indicated.  
"Anyway, I was just checking to make sure you're fine. Since you're fine, I guess I'll leave ya be,"  
Ranma was looking out the window when Nene emerged from the bathroom. He was clad in his bathrobe which made Nene wonder if he was completely naked underneath.  
Nene was naked underneath her bathrobe. She had no problem with wearing dirty clothes, just not dirty undergarments. It was similar to a guy. A guy would have no problem with wearing dirty clothes, so long as they didn't have to wear dirty underwear. Wait, that's wrong. Guys didn't care about that. They didn't care about how dirty their clothes were, so long as it didn't smell bad.  
Nene snickered at the thought.  
"Hm?" Ranma turned around, wondering if Nene was snickering at him.  
"Nothing," she smiled, "I was just thinking to myself about something,"  
Ranma turned back to looking out the window.  
Nene found herself unable to suppress a yawn. When she yawned, it created a sense of tension in the room as it suddenly brought up the sleeping accommodations.  
She glanced at Ranma's back and then at the bed.  
"Don't worry, you can have the bed," he said.  
"Um, w-we can share the bed together," she said nervously, "It's a big bed,"  
"No need," he said, his back still toward her, "I won't be doing that. I don't wantcha feeling all uncomfortable and stuff,"  
"I don't want you sleep on the floor," Nene said, feeling guilty. Sure, she felt uncomfortable at the thought of sleeping in the same bed as Ranma, but she felt even more uncomfortable at the thought of Ranma having to sleep on the floor so that she could have the bed to herself.  
Ranma said, "I won't be sleeping on the floor either,"  
Nene glanced toward the small chair by the corner of the room. It would be really uncomfortable to sleep on that chair.  
"I don't need sleep anymore," Ranma said.  
"What?" Nene was surprised.  
"I haven't slept since I became God a long time ago," Ranma said, "In a sense, I haven't had the need to sleep in decades,"  
Nene was shocked at hearing that. She was pretty sure no one knew that about Ranma. "I don't think I understand whatcha mean," Nene said, wondering if she should be asking that about her.  
"When I, or whichever version of myself, caused Third Impact, I no longer needed to sleep," Ranma said, "I know, you do see me sleep, but I just sleep for the sake of sleeping, not because I need it. It's kind of the same with food, I eat for the sake of eating,"  
Nene was speechless at the confession, "I-I never knew this,"  
"Actually, you're the first person to know this," Ranma turned toward her, smilingly slightly, leaning backwards against the glass windowsill, "The only people that know about me is Urd and Shinji,"  
"Shinji?" Nene said.  
"Because he's was the same predicament as me," Ranma said, "When he had similar powers to me, he didn't need to sleep or eat or drink water or all that other stuff to stay alive. He was given my memories, and he still has them, so he knows about this about me,"  
Nene was silent.  
Ranma smiled warmly, "Don't worry. It's nothing much to worry about. I can enjoy sleeping and eating and such like everyone else. It's just that they're no longer a necessity like for everyone else. Yeah, I know, I'm pretty fucked up,"  
"I don't know what to say," Nene began, feeling a great sense of sadness for Ranma.  
"Actually, there's nothing much to say," Ranma said, "It's just something I wanted to point out to you. Since I don't need to sleep, there's no need to worry about our sleeping accommodations. I'll just stay awake while you sleep,"  
"Um, how much of your powers did you retain from when you were God, now that you're back," Nene asked from out of the blue.  
"You'd really like to know, wouldntcha?" Ranma smirked.  
Nene nodded.  
"Quite a bit," Ranma said nonchalantly.  
"Just how much is 'quite a bit'?" she persisted.  
"A lot," he said.  
"How much?" she asked.  
"Don't worry about it," Ranma said, turning his gaze back out the window.  
Nene didn't bother to persist. It was very obvious to her that Ranma didn't want to have to answer that. It wasn't as if she needed to be told by him to know how much of his powers he possessed. He either possessed God-powers, or something so akin that it might as well be considered such. "I'll see you in the morning," he said.  
Nene laid down on the bed, keeping her robe on. Knowing that Ranma didn't want to continue on the conversation, she figured it was best to not ask anything else.  
"Um, goodnight," she said sadly, wondering if she was going to be able to get some sleep that night, after hearing what she had heard about Ranma.  
"Night,"

Nene yawned as she woke up.  
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she sat upright. Looking down, she noticed that she was still in her bathrobe but she was under the bedcovers. She had fallen asleep above the bedcovers so that mean that Ranma had placed her under the blankets sometime through the night after she fell asleep.  
Nene looked over toward the window where she saw Ranma standing right where he was before, staring out the window toward the distant horizon.  
"Morning," Ranma said, turning around toward her.  
"What time is it?" she asked sleepily.  
"Nine-ish," Ranma said.  
"It's so early," she wanted to flop down in her bed and go back to sleep.  
Ranma chuckled, "Not that early,"  
Nene sighed as she climbed out of bed. As she did, the front of her robe open to reveal her nakedness for Ranma to see.  
"Lookin' nice," Ranma smirked.  
Nene yelped out in surprise as she quickly closed the front of her robe, a deep blush on her face. She felt mortified at having been seen naked like that.  
"You're such a pervert," Nene said to Ranma loudly.  
"What the heck did I do?"  
Ranma and Nene were at a random clothing store looking for some new clothes to buy. Once they were done buying clothes, they would be going out to get some breakfast.  
"Hey, how about these?" Ranma grinned, holding up a pair of reddish-pink panties that looked more like dental floss than anything else.  
"Ranma!" Nene said loudly, blushing a deep shade of red.  
"C'mon, it'll match your natural hair color," Ranma grinned.  
"Ranma!"

"Whatcha checking out now?" Ranma asked.  
"Just checking up on who this Bateau guy," she said.  
Ranma was silent for a moment, "Why, what about him?"  
"I'm just curious about him," she answered innocently, "I figured since they're the only two people we've come in contact with since we got to this world, we might as well know more about them,"  
"Oh, I guess you have a point," Ranma said, wondering why he had gotten slightly miffed when Nene had expressed an interest in knowing who Bateau was.  
Ranma and Nene were at the exact same coffee house where they had been the other day. The owner wasn't working that day so yesterday's incident wasn't known to the staff members working that day. "We're most likely going to be bumping into them throughout our stay here," Nene said, "At least this way, it helps to know more about them. Perhaps there's some driving motive that keeps 'em coming after us,"  
Ranma gave a chuckled, "I think I know. It's probably because they truly hate me and wanna kill me. I guess that's a good enough driving force for something like that,"  
Nene asked, "Aren't you worried? They're very powerful and inhuman. Heck, Shinji's a really good fighter but even he would have trouble going against one of them, let alone both. You, you gotta go against both of them,"  
Ranma grinned, "True, but I ain't Shinji. Plus, I've dealt with this kinda stuff before and it don't bother me any,"  
"Still," Nene said.  
Ranma looked at the screen, "So, what have you found out about this Bateau guy? It's probably nothing all that interesting,"  
He seemed completely unaware that he was trying to sway Nene's open-judgment of this Bateau guy.  
"Ah, here we go," Nene said as the screen displayed some useful information, "I found some kind of website or database about that Bateau guy,"  
"What's it say?" Ranma asked, a bit interested. Nene proceeded to scan through all the text of information for anything of interest.  
"Hm, it says here that he's over a hundred," Nene commented, "He's actually slightly older than Motoko it seems,"  
"Wow, he's an old man," Ranma smirked, "Told you there's nothing interesting about him. He's an old man,"  
Nene said, "What are you talking about? You're as old as him,"  
Ranma found himself unable to respond to that comment. All the could do was give a shy smile.  
"Hm, he's second in command of Section-9 and works under Motoko," Nene said, "Hm, it says here he used to an Army Ranger before he was recruited for Section-  
9 around seventy years ago,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "An Army Ranger, huh? What, is that some kinda elite Army force?"  
Nene nodded, "Yeah, basically. It even says here that he has extremely effective close-combat skills,"  
"Hm, I guess that could be explained," Ranma said, "If I were to fight either Bateau or Motoko one-on-one, it seems more likely that Bateau would land a blow first before Motoko. Of course, that's just hypothetically speaking. I need to be sleeping or something for them to actually hit me,"  
"I see you've kept your sense of modesty," Nene giggled.  
Ranma chuckled, "Heh. I guess I have,"  
"Hm, I wonder who this Net-Master person is this site refers to," Nene commented.  
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.  
Nene smirked as she pointed toward the screen, "Seems like Bateau thinks this person named Net-Master is pretty,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Net-Master? What kinda name is that? Is that a guy's or a girl's name?"  
Nene scanned a bit, "Hm, seems like Net-Master is female. This site says that he just recently finally saw what Net-Master looks like after ten years,"  
"Whoa," Ranma said, "Let me get this straight, Bateau liked this girl named Net-Master for ten years and only recently he finally saw her?"  
Nene shook her head, "No. I don't think it's like that. It shows no indication here that he likes this Net-Master person. It seems like he knew of this Net-  
Master person for around ten years and just recently finally saw what she looked like,"  
"Is she hot?" Ranma smirked.  
Nene narrowed her eyes, "Is it me or do all guys ask that?"  
"Huh?" he asked.  
"Whenever anyone ever mentions a girl, the guy always asks 'Is she hot?'," Nene commented, "Why do guys ask that? And for your information, how the heck am I supposed to know what she looks like?"  
Ranma gave a meek smile, "I guess you have a point,"  
Nene continued to scan the screen, "Hm, wow, it says here that he found out who Net-Master is yesterday and was finally able to put a face with the name,"  
Ranma seemed interested, "Hey, can we find out who this Net-Master chick is?"  
"Chick?" Nene perked an eyebrow.  
"I mean girl," Ranma corrected himself, holding his hands up defensively, "Y'know what I mean,"  
Nene turned back to the screen without saying anything else. Ranma noted this. He was surprised that Nene didn't make a big deal about that comment. Most of the other girls would get on his case about using the word 'chick' when referring to a girl. Sure, he wasn't doing it intentionally, but he couldn't help it. It was simply a part of his nature,"  
"Ah, here we go. Found something about Net-Master," Nene said.  
"Cool, what's it say?" he asked, curious.  
Nene scanned for a moment, "Hm, it doesn't say much here about her or who she is. The information given just says she popped up on the Internet around ten years ago and is on the International Cybernetic-Crime Most Wanted List,"  
"Ooh, she's a bad girl," Ranma perked an eyebrow, "Kinky,"  
Nene cast Ranma an odd glance.  
"Not that I like that stuff, mind you," Ranma gave a grin, giving her a teasing nudge, "I like law-abiding good-natured chicks more,"  
"Chicks?" Nene asked, narrowing her eyes.  
"Y'know what I mean," Ranma said, "C'mon, y'know me. I'm a male chauvinistic pig and it usually takes time to change,"  
"Well, at least knowing is half the battle," Nene stated.  
Ranma gave a meek laugh, "You don't hafta agree so readily,"  
Nene giggled. She cleared her throat and continued to view the screen, "Hm, it says here that she's linked to having started a 'Global Slowdown' that resulted in trillions of world-wide revenue being lost due to such a slowdown,"  
"How did she do that?" he asked.  
"Hm, it seems like she created this virus that locks down computers, preventing it from being used," Nene commented, "Hm, that's kinda funny because I'm familiar with that virus,"  
"Huh?" he asked, "Virus,"  
"That's probably what she did, created a virus that spread throughout the entire world to resulted in all the computers infected locking up," Nene said, admiring whoever this Net-Master was. Although Nene did have the know-how to do something like that, she didn't have the lack of morality that would allow her to follow through with it.  
"Can you explain? How do you know about this virus?" he asked.  
Nene smiled, feeling very proud of herself, "It's my field of expertise. Even though this world is very much different from our own, it seems like computer viruses are fundamentally the same. The virus that affected this world reminds me of the dormant virus I have on my computer,"  
Ranma was confused.  
"I wrote a computer virus for my computer," Nene said, "It's a super-duper vindictive virus. Y'know how people receive SPAM and such via email? Y'know, useless junk that you don't want?"  
Ranma nodded, "That I know. What about it?"  
"Whenever I receive a SPAM email, the virus program goes into effect," Nene said, "The algorithm for how it detects whether its SPAM or not is very complicated and doesn't need to be explained in detail. Anyway, when the virus program finds out SPAM got through to my computer goes into effect. It launches a virus over the Internet specifically targeting the computer that sent it. Even if SPAM is routed from different servers before it reaches my computer, it doesn't matter. It'll only target the computer where that SPAM originated. When it reaches that computer, it takes effect and basically nukes that computer. Only a complete system reinstall can get rid of it,"  
Ranma scratched his head.  
"Basically, I made a virus program that kicks the butt out of SPAMMER's computers," Nene simplified, "If you send SPAM, your computer dies,"  
"Wow, that's so cool," Ranma said.  
Nene smiled confidently, "Yes, it is,"  
"Hm, I wonder if that's what affected Yggdrasil," Ranma scratched his chin.  
"Huh?" Nene asked.  
"I tried to send you an email from when I was in Heaven," Ranma said, "Maybe your program thought my message was SPAM and nuked Yggdrasil. That's funny if it did. Skuld would probably try and kill you if she found out. It took her forever to fix up and clean out that virus,"  
Nene gulped.  
"Oh well, that's water under the bridge," Ranma chuckled.  
"That couldn'tve happened though," Nene said, "If you sent me an email, even if it's possible from my computer to receive an email from Heaven, then my computer would not have detected it as SPAM,"  
Ranma said, "Really? Hm,"  
"What kind of email did you send? What did it say?" she asked. She wondered if any of the other girls got that email or had Ranma sent an email to her specifically. It was most likely Ranma made an email and sent out copies of it to all the other girls. Although Ranma wasn't all that adept with computers, he was knowledgeable enough to know how to send out email to the different email addresses.  
Ranma said, "Yggdrasil had a one of those 'webcam' thingies. I figured, of all people, you would have one so I sent an email saying I was in front of a computer with a webcam and that you can see me,"  
Nene's eyes twitched slightly, "You must have some weird kind of luck to have sent a legitimate email that reads exactly like SPAM. I don't think anyone on any planet actually emails a person directly about having a webcam. It just doesn't happen,"  
"Well, I wasn't on the planet," Ranma stated, "I was in Heaven,"  
Nene nearly fell out of her seat at the comment, "You know what I mean," "Well, I guess that's what happened," Ranma said, "Oh well. We can keep it as our little secret. Skuld'll be really angry if she found out the truth,"  
"What did she think happened then that caused a virus to infect Yggdrasil?" Nene asked.  
"She thought I downloaded a virus when I was downloading, um, music songs," Ranma gave a slight smile.  
"Music songs, huh?" Nene giggled, "So that's what they call 'porn' nowadays?"  
"How'd you know?" Ranma's eyes widened.  
Nene's eyes widened as well as she blushed and said, "Oh my god! You really were downloading porn? I was just making a guess!"  
Ranma shrugged, "Oh well. I guess ya caught me. Who really cares anyway. I'm a guy so it's my right to do that,"  
"What? Did I hear that right?" Nene asked, "You just said, it's your right as a guy to download porn?" Ranma said, "Actually, it's more along the lines of obligation. God forbid I don't download porn and be considered a sissy,"  
Nene sighed, "Why do I bother asking?"  
"Let's change the subject," Ranma said, "Back to the virus thing..."  
"Well, anyway, it seems like this Net-Master made a virus that seems similar to how my anti-SPAM virus is," Nene said, "However, it seems like it's a bit of a variation such that it spreads out to other computer, probably via email or such, instead of just infecting that one particular computer,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if Net-Master was really you?"  
"How?" Nene wasn't all that amused, "I've never been on this world,"  
"I know, but it'd be really cool," Ranma stated, "That way, in a sense, you'd be meeting your own self,"  
Nene scratched her head, "Me meeting my own self? That sounds kind of interesting, but I know that would never happen,"  
Ranma said, changing the subject once again, "Are you kidding me? You can meet your own self if you want,"  
"Really?" Nene asked.  
"You can meet other versions of yourself, too," Ranma commented, "Heck, there's this one world where the Knight Sabers exist but they're different,"  
"What do you mean?" she asked.  
"For instance, there's this one world where the Nene Romanova of that world is a seventeen-year old girl with short blond hair," Ranma began, "And the Linna Yamazaki of that world has brown hair instead of black. And the Sylia of that world has very light skin and very light blue hair,"  
"You're teasing me, right?" Nene narrowed her eyes.  
"No," Ranma said, "No joke. It's like, some kinda revised version of your world. It's kinda cool. But unlike your world, it's kinda hard to remember what happened on that world because your world is much more kick-ass,"  
Nene seemed confused.  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nevermind that. Back to the subject about Net-  
Master. Is there any thing else we can find out about her?"  
Nene scanned her screen some more, "Hm, not much. She's a bit of an enigmatic entity. There seems to be no information on who she is or where one could find her,"  
"She seems cool," Ranma said.  
"You don't even know her," Nene said, feeling a tinge of jealousy, "And for your information, the virus that seems to have made her notorious is cake. I could make a virus that can make that seem like nothing,"  
"Really?" Ranma smirked.  
"Not that I would," Nene added, "Doing stuff like that is just wrong,"  
"You're no fun," Ranma made an exaggerated pouting look.  
"Is it me or does it seem like you just WANT bad stuff to happen while we're on this world?" Nene commented.  
At that moment, Bateau and Motoko came storming into the coffee shop. Bateau, whom had had his cybernetic brain hacked unknowingly by Nene all this time, had traced the origin of the hacking back to the coffee shop.  
"Freeze!" Ranma and Nene both heard from the front of the store.  
Ranma turned around first and immediately recognized Bateau and Motoko. He sighed.  
"God, this is getting downright annoying. It's like some stinking running gag with them always chasing us," Ranma muttered.  
"Maybe you should do something about it," Nene commented, "They're not going to leave us alone until something's done,"  
Ranma started cracking he knuckles, "I understand exactly what you mean. This is gonna be fun. Smacking that Bateau guy's gonna be fun,"  
Nene quickly said, "Not like that!"  
"Then what?" he asked.  
"I mean just talk to them and get things cleared up," she stated.  
"Oh, that's no fun," Ranma said.  
Nene pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered under her breath.  
"It isn't me. Ranma really DOES want bad stuff to happen while on this world,"

new stuff

"You're an asshole!" Motoko sneered toward Ranma. Her anger toward him had made her lose her sense of professionalism.  
"Sure, but can YOU kick MY ass?" Ranma grinned.  
"I hate you!" she said.  
"Sure, but can YOU kick MY ass?" Ranma continued to grin.  
"Is that the only retort you've got?" she shouted loudly.  
"What matters here is can YOU kick MY ass?" he persisted.  
Ranma had come up with the ultimate argument-ender. There was nothing neither she nor Bateau could say that could top that. The two of them were both, once again tucked under each of Ranma's arms, their arms pinned to their sides which prevented them from being able to do anything but shout obscenities toward him.  
"I hope you rot in Hell!" Motoko shouted. From Bateau's point of view, this was quite unprecedented. He had never seen her so frustrated that she had resorted to just shouting whatever came to her mind. But then again, never had she, nor he, faced an opponent like Ranma.  
"Can YOU kick MY ass?" Ranma grinned. "Shut up!" Motoko said, "Quit saying that!"  
"Sure, only if YOU can kick MY ass," Ranma said.  
"Where are you taking us?" Bateau asked, quite until now. All this time, he had been trying to struggle free, much to no avail.  
"I'll tell you, if YOU can kick MY ass," Ranma said. In a sense, he was venting out his annoyance at the two of them by annoying them in return. He was sick and tired of them chasing him and it was about time he did something about it.  
Ranma exited the coffee shop and outside. Several pedestrians stopped to see what was going on.  
"We didn't drive here so there's no car trunk for you to throw us in," Bateau smirked.  
Ranma chuckled, "Wow, y'hear what ya just said? It seems like you two already expected such an outcome, that I would easily beat you guys, once again. What did you guys talk about when you were on your way here? 'Let's walk because Ranma's gonna beat us no matter what we do, so we might as well have it where he has no trunk to throw us in'?"  
"We thought nothing like that!" Motoko shouted. As a matter-of-fact, the two of them had actually been on foot patrol searching for them when Nene had involuntarily hacked into Bateau's brain.  
"It doesn't matter anyway," Ranma said, "I'll just shove you guys in the trunk of some random parked car,"

"This is getting ridiculous," Ranma muttered to himself, "They're really getting on my nerves,"  
Nene followed obediently next to him as they walked down the street. Oddly enough, she was somewhat amused. It was really amazing seeing just how formidable a fighter Ranma was. It was also very reassuring to know that he was on her side.  
"Maybe we should just go with them and talk to them," Nene commented, "Afterall, they said they just wanted to talk to us,"  
Ranma chuckled, "I doubt they'd want to do that anymore. I could've done that a while ago, but not now. Heck, it doesn't really matter anyway. There's nothing to talk about. They're making a mountain out of a mole hill in my opinion. They should go chasing crooks or something, not us,"  
"Well, you did rob a bank," Nene stated.  
Ranma was silent for a moment, "Well, that's not their job. Let the police worry about that. They do cybernetic-crime stuff. Neither of us have done that so you know it's just a personal issue with 'em,"  
"What do you plan on doing?" she asked.  
"If I see them again, I'm gonna give them an ultimatum," he said seriously, "That if they don't stop chasing us and mind their own business, I'm gonna personally go over to Section-9 where they work, and make a huge mess that they'll hafta forget about us to deal with all the damage that occurred to their headquarters,"  
"Y-you would do that?" Nene's eyes widened in shock.  
Ranma nodded, "If they get on my nerves, yes. And frankly, I'm on my last nerve with them,"

Motoko was seriously pissed off as she entered her office. Bateau, who was following right behind her, was also fairly annoyed, but no where near as pissed off as Motoko. He basically had a headache.  
It had only taken Motoko and Bateau a few minutes to break out of the trunk they had been stuffed in. This was because a civilian car wasn't as reinforced as strongly as a police vehicle. However, in her frustration in being in such a situation and having to break out with her bare hands, she ended up damaging her hand when she punched at the interior of the trunk too hard.  
When they broke out, Nene and Ranma were long gone. What was annoying was that they probably went to some random restaurant to get some food. It was basically a slap in the face to them that neither Ranma nor Nene seemed to make an effort at trying to avoid them. It was as if they view Motoko and Bateau as nothing more than an annoyance.  
"You should head down to the infirmary," Bateau commented, "They'll fix your hand up in no time,"  
"I'm infuriated by that guy," Motoko commented, feeling the need to throw something, "Heck, I don't even know who to be more angry at, the girl or the guy. I swear, it seems as if they work as a single entity,"  
"You think it's because they're a couple?" he asked.  
"I don't know," she commented, "They must be telepathic or something. There's no way two people could complement each other so well. I say this because together, I don't know which one is more of a threat,"  
She looked down at her hand. It was damaged, but it she didn't need immediate medical help. Actually, she didn't need medical help, per say. She was a cyborg, afterall. Medical help for her was basically equivalent to visiting a repair shop and having a damage part either fixed or repaired.  
Bateau rubbed at his head, "I'm kinda annoyed, too. Man, I can't believe my brain got graffitied. Net-Master, or Nene, or whatever her name is, put that cryptic line of code on my brain,"  
Motoko shrugged, "Now you know how I feel,"  
Nene had inputted that 'tag' she always used after Ranma had promptly taken care of Motoko and Bateau. When Ranma had carried them out toward a random civilian car to stuff them in the trunk, Nene had gone back to the computer to log off and leave with Ranma, but not before she had left her mark on the 'website' she had hacked.  
"Do you think she's going to hack into us again?" Bateau asked, "If she does, perhaps we should set up a trap. Our personal attack barriers may not be enough to stop her, but maybe a military one might,"  
Motoko said, "I was just thinking that. However, that's all based on the assumption that she might hack into us,"  
"Do you think the government will allocate the necessary equipment to setup such a trap?" Bateau asked. "Yeah," Motoko smirked, "Remember the Halliway Incident where we helped out the Prime Minister? He still owes us for that,"  
"True," Bateau said, walking over to the phone, "I'll go make the call now,"  
"I'm heading downstairs to have my hand repaired," Motoko said, "I'll be back shortly,"  
"Okay, you can leave everything to me,"

Nene sat down in front of a computer.  
The two of them had eaten at a random restaurant immediately after they had left the coffee shop. Because they had a feeling that Motoko and Bateau knew of their eating habits, they had stopped to eat at a restaurant far away from the coffee shop, making their search much harder.  
She and Ranma were now in a library. Nene had figured that she would find a computer in there, which proved correct. This made her happy because she would be killing two birds with one stone. Wanting to get to know more about this world, using a computer for her would be best. And because she would be doing it in a library, Ranma would be nearby in case Motoko and Bateau showed up. In the meanwhile, Ranma could go about looking for books.  
"What's the name of the book again?" Ranma asked.  
"It's called 'Dawning of Immortality'," she answered, "But that's its name on our world. We don't know if that series exists on this world,"  
"It couldn't hurt to try," Ranma smiled.  
Nene smiled warmly. Ranma seemed genuinely interested in finding that series. It warmed her heart at the thought that Ranma might get into that series or something of the same genre. If he liked it, then she could have conversations with Ranma about what they liked to read.  
Ranma noticed the keyboard and mouse in front of Nene, "Ah, I see they do have a keyboard and mouse for you to use,"  
Nene smiled slightly, "Yeah. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Libraries do keep all of the stuff they ever receive. If stuff gets too old, they just put it in storage,"  
"What do you plan on checking out?" Ranma asked.  
"Nothing much," Nene said, "I'll probably just check up about this world's history and such. I'm also interested in knowing more about this Net-Master person, too,"  
"How about checking up on Motoko and Bateau and finding out more about them?" he asked curiously.  
Nene quickly shook her head, "No way. I'm not stupid. On both cases when we checked on information on either of them, they showed up. I don't want it to happen a third time,"  
"What, you think information about them are somehow monitored or such?" Ranma asked.  
"It could be," Nene said, "They could be 'tagged'. It's kinda like the way certain books in the library are 'tagged',"  
"Oh?" Ranma scratched his head, "I don't understand whatcha mean. Books in libraries are tagged,"  
"Yeah," Nene nodded, "Well, I don't know about this world, but certain books on our world are tagged. For instance, stuff like books about making bombs are tagged. If you take them out, your name is logged on some government database,"  
"Wow, I never knew that," Ranma said.  
Nene said, "Not many people know that. However, the government doesn't take action just because of that. You could be doing a research paper about bombs, afterall. If you, say, take out a book about the structuring of a bridge, then the government takes action and perhaps starts monitoring you. If you go beyond that and, say, take out a book about government buildings and their floor plans, then you might be getting a knock on your door,"  
"Wow," Ranma was surprised.  
"But only 'key' books are 'tagged'," Nene said, "We have no idea exactly which books. It's kinda like how our phone conversations are sometimes 'tagged'. For instance, if you make a phone call on our world and say keywords like 'president' and 'kill' and 'assassinate' and 'bomb' within a short period of time, your phone call is automatically recorded,"  
Ranma said, "Wow, that's so interesting. I never knew these things,"  
"Not many people do," Nene said, "I guess, um, I'm full of useless trivial knowledge,"  
"How's knowing about something like that considered useless?" Ranma said, "You're making me learn stuff I never knew about. It's really interesting,"  
"Really? You think that's interesting?" Nene found her hopes up.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. I like stuff like that,"  
"So do I," Nene said happily, "I really like stuff like that,"  
"I'm gonna try and see if that works right now," Ranma said.  
"Huh?" Nene asked.  
She watched curiously as Ranma walked up to the counter where books are usually logged in a computer to be taken out. He walked up the female librarian and gave her a big smile.  
"No!" Nene said, her eyes wide with surprise. This was because Ranma was the type of person that really would do something like that, just for the heck of it.  
Ranma turned toward her and chuckled, "I was just joking,"  
Nene narrowed her eyes.  
"Really, I was," Ranma said, "I don't want those two hounding us any more than you do,"  
Nene didn't seem convinced. "Alright," Ranma began walking off, "You see me? I'm walking off now. I'm gonna go look for that 'Dawning of Immortality' book you mentioned,"  
"And JUST that book, please," Nene added.  
"Damn," Ranma muttered under his breath. Nene giggled.  
After watching Ranma walk off and began searching through some books and keeping himself occupied, Nene seemed to relax and decided to go about searching the Internet.  
Afterall, if it was a war of wits between her and Ranma, she would win.

new stuff 3/2

"She's doing a brain-dive on me," Motoko said, at attention and hooking the interface wires on the back of her neck to a decked-out government supercomputer. They had been granted use of it, but only to capture Net-Master. They were promptly ordered not to snoop around on that computer because, even though they usually had clearance to top secret information, there was information that even though weren't allowed to know.  
"Actually, if you think about it, it isn't necessarily a brain-dive," Bateau commented, smirking slightly, "Afterall, in order to do a brain dive, one's Ghost needs to infiltrate your own Ghost. With Nene or Net-Master or whatever she calls herself, since she just sits in front of a computer and interfaces with it completely differently, she's basically hacking into your brain,"  
Motoko didn't bother wasting her time answering that. Bateau hooked himself up to the computer as well. They could've hooked themselves up to the computer initially, before they were hacked, but they didn't want Nene to suspect something if she realized she had to suddenly hack through several extra layers of encryption and barriers to reach either of their brains.  
"Beginning trace," Bateau said, closing his eyes so he could focus on tracing the origin of the hacking.  
"Keep your attack barrier down in the meanwhile," Motoko said, "There's a chance she might hack into your brain as well now that she's in my brain,"  
"Okay,"

Nene couldn't help herself. She wanted to know more about Motoko and Bateau. As much as she wanted to know more about this world, she was more interested in knowing more about those two. Perhaps it was because, as a police officer, she felt as if they were one of her own, people of authority.  
She wanted to know more about what kind of crimes they dealt with. She also couldn't help but have this sense of respect for the two of them. Sure, they got beaten by Ranma at every encounter, but this was Ranma, afterall. She was very sure against anyone else, they could take him or her down without a problem. Fearing that perhaps information on those two was 'tagged' like she mentioned, she set up a personal encryption barrier around what she was doing. That way, anyone trying to trace the origin of her hacking would be routed to some phantom location.  
Nene giggled slightly. This was kind of fun actually, much more fun than playing what few video games she played on her computer from time to time. It felt as if she was playing chess against some unseen opponent.  
Knowing that she was not going to be traced, she decided she would snoop around more thoroughly. She was curious as to what made those two tick, starting off with Motoko. Motoko seemed like she had a lot of anger, what with the fact she seemed to be venting most of it out on Ranma. But then again, perhaps Ranma was the reason for her anger, which wouldn't be a first for many people.  
Nene paused for a moment as when she noticed her 'tag' was no longer there.  
"Hm, someone must be monitoring this page pretty closely to have noticed it and fixed it only within a day of when I tagged it," Nene said to herself. It made her wonder if someone was watching her movements within the computer right now.  
She giggled slightly. It didn't really matter anyway. She was too skilled a hacker to need to worry about that. The only thing that could basically stop her if something actually physically stopped her, like a city-wide blackout which lead to her current computer shutting down.  
Continuing to snoop around, Nene came across some rather shocking information about Motoko.  
"Whoa, aside from her brain and spine, she's completely cybernetic," Nene said to herself. She figured that Motoko was cybernetic, but not quite that much, "Hm, I wonder if she could do womanly stuff like give birth,"  
She came across this page that seemed to give stats about her.  
"Wow, she can lift over a thousand pounds, provided she had stable footing," she said, "Can reach a maximum running speed of a hundred miles per hour in one second. Has a maximum jumping capacity of fifty vertical feet. Man, this woman's more powerful than Akane,"  
She continued to scan, checking out some of her background, "Knows Aikido, Judo, Jujitsu, Ninjitsu, Shaolin Kung-Fun, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, and Capoeria. All at Grandmaster levels. Man, she's a walking powerhouse,"  
Nene scratched her head wondering just how much better of a fighter Ranma was to be able to easily defeat someone so powerful.  
"Recognized as member of elite forces such. Worked as Rangers, Delta Force, Navy Seals, KGB, and SAS operatives," Nene said, "Jeez, her stats are out-of-  
this world," She scanned around some more, "Built-in Thermo-optic camouflage? What the heck is that?"  
Nene did a quick search on the Internet about what that is. She found out that it was usually called optic-cam for short. After a short bit of reading, she found out it was a thin film of layering that one wore that made the wearer virtually invisible and undetectable to infrared sensors.  
Having found out what it was, Nene found out that Motoko's skin was actually completely made up of optic-cam.  
"Wow, so if she wants, she can become invisible, so long as she just takes off her clothes," Nene commented, "Hm, I guess Motoko can do the same thing as what that bug-looking tank Bateau was manning could do,"  
Nene scratched her head, wondering why Motoko hadn't used that trump card of hers before. It probably would've made apprehending the two of them much easier if they couldn't see her. After a short pause, Nene realized that it actually was useless to use that. Ranma would be able to sense where she was. Afterall, he was able to sense that Tachikoma that had optic-cam implemented at the time.  
"Hm, what were those bug-like things they rode anyway?" she asked herself.  
Typing on the keyboard a few times, she came across information on Section-9's ordnance. After some reading, she found out that a Tachikoma was basically considered a 'vehicular companion' that could act autonomously. It could also take on a passenger and be controlled via neural links by the passenger.  
"What the heck's a neural link?" Nene began searching around.  
She found out that neural links was a form of interface that existed on this world that allowed cyborgs to interface with machines, that those links were generally found in the back of a cyborg's neck. In a sense, it allowed machines to be linked directly with a cyborg's brain. Doing so created an interface that made the cyborg feel as if he or she was actually the machine.  
"Hm, I guess that could come in handy for surfing the Internet," Nene said, wondering how nice it would be to actually experience sensations via the Internet and such.  
"Hmph, Ranma'll probably immediately surf to some porno page," Nene muttered, finding herself getting angry at him for some odd reason. She glanced in Ranma's direction where she saw him still busy scanning through the shelves for books. One might find it out why books would still exist in a world dominated by computers. However, in this world, what Ranma was actually searching for was the 'book' that referred to what he was looking for. When he finds it, he could choose to take out view variations of what he wanted, be it a holographic video, an audio sampling, or even a book. Turning back to the computer screen, Nene checked out more information about the Tachikoma she saw.  
"Hm, they have AI," she said to herself, "They have no Ghost. What the heck is a Ghost? Let's see here. Ah, Ghost. Hm, a Ghost is, in essence, the soul of a person or cyborg,"  
Nene began searching for information about what a Ghost was. She had a big smile on her face. She felt like she was doing detective work, something she always liked. It was as if she was given a very small bit of information and had to slowly find the puzzle pieces and put them together based on that bit of information she had to go by.  
"Ghost is the essence of a human," Nene read the information, "Also considered a soul, it is usually a topic of debate. When is a human no longer considered a human? How can one know if their Ghost is actually genuine or created artificially,"  
After some careful reading, Nene found herself confused. She decided that a Ghost was something that couldn't really be explained in proper context, much like the way a soul could be explained. Afterall, did humans actually have a soul? There was no real way to telling if that was possible since a soul is something that could've been completely made up a long time ago so that people could feel a sense of individuality. A Ghost, or a soul, was something that could have been completely made up simply to comfort and give support to humans questioning their existence.  
"A Ghost is the essence of a human, huh?" Ranma's voice startled Nene.  
"R-Ranma," Nene turned toward him in surprise.  
"What, is a Ghost something like a soul?" he asked.  
"Actually, that seems to be the definition," Nene said.  
Ranma chuckled, "A soul, huh? Okay, if people wanna believe that, so be it,"  
"What do you mean?" Nene asked, "What, you don't believe in having a soul?"  
Ranma shook his head, "No, because I found out that doesn't exist. However, because it's pretty shocking, I never tell anyone the truth,"  
Nene seemed very interested in what Ranma had to say.  
"A definition of a soul is something made up by humans," Ranma said, "Humans questioned their existence so they created that word to suit themselves, to make them feel comfortable with who they are. How do you think religion works?"  
"Huh?" Nene said.  
Ranma smirked, "The best way to describe religion is 'an invisible means of support'. The problem here is that that 'support' that humans think their getting doesn't exist, they just think it exist because it makes them comfortable,"  
Nene was an open-minded person, but even she had trouble accepting Ranma's words, "What, so what you're saying is that you think religion is all a sham?" Ranma said, "Actually, it's not that I think it is, it's that I know it is,"  
"Oh man, if people heard this, they would think you're going to burn in Hell," Nene said sadly.  
"You know the truth," Ranma said, "Urd is God. There's no denying it. I guarantee that if let it be known to the world what kind person Urd is, humankind would not accept it because they refuse to accept it. And you know that saying about burning in Hell? There is no Hell. Once again, it was made up,"  
"What about Heaven?" she asked.  
"That exists," Ranma said, "You know it exists. You were even there. The problem is that Heaven isn't the so-called Heaven humans believe it to be. The place they think it to be is, once again, completely made up based on what humans wanted to believe. Y'starting to get the picture? Humans make up a lotta stuff. It's the same thing with a soul, completely made up just because humans question their existence,"  
Nene was at a loss of words at what Ranma had just proclaimed.  
"You exist because you do," Ranma said, "Don't question it. It's like those people who say 'Where did God come from? Something had to create him or her'. Well, I've got news for you, they're wrong. God ALWAYS existed. Of course, people refuse to believe that, and even if they do start to believe it, they'll make up with something to make them feel better about it. Knowing them, they'll probably say that God was created by a more powerful God that their human mind can't comprehend. Heck, they'll probably go as far as to say that God and everything that exist is part of some story some dude wrote on his computer and that they only exist in that story,"  
"You're kind of freaking me out," Nene gave him an odd look.  
"And what's funny would be that the dude that created us was created by the God of his world," Ranma said, "And that God was created the God of that world. And so on,"  
"That's really freaky," Nene said, "But I guess you have a point,"  
"People shouldn't worry about stuff like that," Ranma shrugged, "I just figured I'd put in my two cents. That's all. Anyway, I didn't really mean to bother you with your research, but I just wanted to tell ya that I found that book, 'Dawning of Immortality',"  
"It exists on this world? Really? Wow! What are the chances?" Nene said in surprise.  
Ranma smirked.  
"Maybe some God, that likes that book, decided to put it on this world just for the heck of it,"  
"I can't trace the hack," Bateau said, frustrated.  
"What?" Motoko said.  
"The hack's origin is constantly changing," Bateau answered, "The trace constantly leads back to this computer. In a sense, it's like I'm looping in on myself. It makes it seems like you're hacking your own brain,"  
"Well, obviously, I'm not!" Motoko snapped, "I feel like I'm being raped right now!"  
"At least she isn't doing anything malicious," Bateau said, knocking on Motoko's wooden desk. It made him wonder where the term 'knock on wood' came from anyway.  
"It doesn't matter," Motoko said, "This is still an invasion of privacy!"  
Bateau said, "Actually, if you think about it, what she's doing right now mentally with you is, physically, equivalently to just staring at you really hard and making you uncomfortable,"  
"I don't care!" Motoko replied, "How did you like it when she was hacking around in your brain?"  
"Um, I didn't like it at all," Bateau had to agree.  
"Well, now you know how I feel," Motoko said, "I don't like the thought of someone has skilled as her running loose around in my brain. We both know what she's capable of. Sure, it may be equivalent to her just staring at me, but it's more along the lines of her staring at me through the scope of the high-powered rifle with the barrel pointing right at my face and with me unable to move or save a copy of myself anywhere,"  
"Should we just set off the trap then?" Bateau asked, "Unfortunately, we won't know where she is,"  
Motoko found herself at a crossroads. If she set off the trap now, Nene will know they are trying to capture her via Internet. But if they don't, there was a chance Motoko's brain could get seriously hurt or even killed if Nene decided to do something malicious.  
Motoko wondered if the trap would even work. The trap was meant to capture brain-divers and prevent them from escaping once they brain-dove. However, Nene was simply hacking. She could not be physically nor mentally locked-down since the only thing that could happen is her computer would crash and she could simply get up and walk away.  
All Motoko could do was set off the trap and pray that the computer will explode and hurt her, perhaps kill her. The problem was that that was highly unlikely because she needed to be sitting in front of some virtually obsolete computer for that the trap to cause it to explode. The computer needed to be somewhere around a hundred years old for that to happen and the only place where that could possibly happen is if Nene had decided to access the Internet from a museum where such a computer was most likely on exhibit. Let's not forget that since Ranma was most likely near her, he would protect her. And not only that, they had no idea where she was so even if she did get hurt, there was no way they could get to her before Ranma would save her. "If she gets hurt, Ranma'll most likely take her to the hospital," Bateau said, "We can have all the surrounding hospitals monitored for Nene's arrival. They have no idea what we are doing this so there is a chance that that would happen. They're not suspicious of us and our plans,"  
"That's all we've got to go by," Motoko said, "All right, set off the trap. This has gone long enough. Even I'm getting freaked out about what she could do to my brain if she wanted to," "Okay,"

Nene's computer screen flickered.  
"What the heck was that?" Nene asked herself. She was alone, Ranma having gone off to search for the other two books to the 'Immortality' trilogy, he already having found the first book.  
She scratched her head for a moment in confusion.  
"Hm, I guess this world just had a brown-out," she shrugged before she went back to gathering more information.  
"Fuck fuck fuck!" Motoko shouted, "It isn't working!"  
Bateau was very concerned for his partner, "What would you like me to do? I can't trace it,"  
"Start blowing up random buildings and pray that they're in one of them," Motoko suggested.  
Bateau seriously considered doing that, but that was something that he could not do. Too many people's lives were at stake if he started doing that. Motoko slumped in her chair, "Shit, there's nothing I can do. I'm at the mercy of this girl,"  
"Don't say that," Bateau said, "There's got to be something we can do,"  
"Wait, there is a chance," Motoko said, "I notice, at random times, she leaves my brain, most likely to hack into somewhere else. Set up the computer to put up a defense-barrier. Even though my barrier isn't enough to stop her, perhaps out government supercomputer will be able to,"  
Bateau, having thought that out as she was saying that, was well in the process of converting the supercomputer from one to be used as containment field to one to be used as a defensive-barrier.  
"Hm, Motoko can't swim? That's interesting," Nene said to herself, continuing to do more research, "I wonder if it's because of that cybernetic body of hers. She probably weighs so much that she can't stay afloat. Hm, it says here that she could have floatation devices installed within her which will give her the ability to swim,"  
Nene scratched her head as she wondered why Motoko didn't have that installed. Not being able to swim, although manageable, was something a person like her should no have to worry about. If people knew she couldn't swim, wouldn't that mean people could escape a foot-chase from her by taking to the water?  
Nene decided to check more in detail about the reason why.  
"Hm, it seems like having floatation devices installed within her body meant she had to give up her built-in optic-cam," Nene said, "Hm, I guess she didn't want to sacrifice one thing in exchange for the other. Then again, optic-cam seems much better given her line of work,"  
Nene decided she wanted to learn more about how optic-cam worked. After a brief search, she found some useful information about it. "Made of synthetic ploy-alloy, it provides medium protection from bullets," Nene read aloud, "Wow, this optic-cam stuff works as some kind bulletproof vest. Man, I want one of those," Suddenly, the image of her wearing optic-cam while watching Ranma shower popped into her mind.  
She blushed a great shade of red, "What the hell am I thinking!"  
She bonked herself on her head, knowing full well that something like that wouldn't work. Even if that stuff was perfect, Ranma would still be able to sense her. Heck, even if he couldn't, she would most likely make a mistake like trip or something which would reveal her to him.  
"Optic-can is able to sustain up to fifty interruptions," she said, "Where interruptions could be anything from being hit with shrapnel to being touched,"  
"Oh," Nene said, "Optic-cam only works so long as nothing touches it,"  
She wondered how advanced Motoko's optic-cam was and decided to check some more about it about her. When she tried to access Motoko's information, she got an error that the 'page' she was looking at was no longer there.  
"What the?" she seemed confused, "Hm, it seems like their server or whatever that 'page' is running on went down. Oh well. I'll go check out other things,"

"She's out," Motoko sighed in relief, "Man, what a relief,"  
"You can say that again," Bateau said.  
He and Motoko were both hooked up to the supercomputer. During that brief time when Nene left Motoko's brain to search for general information about optic-cam, Bateau had activated the defensive barrier. When she tried to get back in, she was unable to. Of course, little did she know that they had used to supercomputer to block her out, she only believing the server had died making it impossible for her to access the 'page' she had been on earlier. "We're back at square one," Motoko said, "We don't know where she and Ranma are. It'll be near impossible to just go searching the city for them, even if they are just wandering around. The city's too large and crowded to be found so easily,"  
"Yeah, we need a plan," Bateau said, "We should somehow lure them out,"  
"Bateau, put out a warrant for their arrest," Motoko said, "That way, maybe the regular police might actually stumble upon them and bring them into custody. They might go willingly,"  
"Why do you say that?" Bateau asked, "They, or at least Ranma, didn't go willingly when we wanted him to so why would that happen with the police?"  
"He might actually refuse to go with us simply out of spite," Motoko said, "At least this way, if we give out different information on their crime, say, jay-  
walking, they might go along,"  
"Jay-walking, you're kidding me, right?" Bateau was skeptic.  
Motoko said, "No. The police will most likely arrest them and they'll go along willingly, figuring that they did do something wrong. They seem like they're not from around here so they might actually think that that's a crime,"  
"That's crazy," Bateau said, "Are you sure the girl didn't do something with your brain while she was snooping around?"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes, not amused at the comment.  
Bateau shrugged, "All right. You're the boss. I'll get right on it,"  
After he left the room, Motoko pinched the bridge of her nose, a human condition she did that seemed to bear no meaning to her. She really wanted to catch Net-Master and seriously hurt Ranma. However, over time, her vendetta against Ranma seemed to have taken a back seat to Nene's extreme hacking abilities.  
"Man, I can't wait to retire. I'm too old for all of this shit,"  
"Hm, no information about Bateau either," Nene said to herself, figuring the 'page' that had Bateau's information had gone down as well. Little did she know that both Bateau and Motoko were using a supercomputer to block her out exclusively.  
She sat back in her seat, thinking of what to research.  
After a few minutes of brainstorming, she decided to check into Section-9. Sure, she can't read information about Motoko and Bateau at the moment, but that didn't mean she couldn't check out information about their exploits and their job.  
"Let's find out what kinda place Section-9 is,"

"Section-9 is being hacked!" Bateau rushed into the Motoko's office, "All our top secret information is being accessed!"  
"What the hell, is she specifically targeting us?" Motoko shouted, rising from her seat. This was definitely going to look bad. As the head of Section-9 and an operative that worked specifically against cyber-crimes, there was nothing that could possibly be more mortifying. It was basically equivalent to a police officer having his police car carjacked as he was climbing in.  
"I guess now we know how they feel," Bateau said, well aware of how much time they had spent chasing Ranma and Nene, "Maybe she's doing this to give us a taste of our own medicine,"  
"Now's not the time for speculation!" Motoko rushed out of her office and down the hallway toward the control room.  
The control room was the heart of Section-9. It contained three androids, which sat in front of a desk like that of a secretary, that contained all the information pertaining to Section-9. With state-of-the-art defensive and offensive barriers, being hacked into was something that should not have occurred.  
"How the hell did she get in here?" Motoko gasped, "Who is this girl?"  
"Wow, Section-9's got quite an impressive accomplishment sheet," Nene said in surprise, "Saved the Prime Minister nineteen times. Exposed international blackbox operations. Prevented the collapse of this world's economy. Exposed the Puppet Master, Laughing Man, Masumune Shirow, Production IG, and GiTS were some of the things listed,"  
"What the heck are all these?" Nene scratched her head.  
At Random, she decided to check the first name on the list, Puppet Master.  
"Puppet Master, also known as Project 2501, a secret American computer AI program that became sentient," Nene read the information, "Designed to infiltrate and hack into specific targets systems and networks. Exposure lead to an international incident which resulted in America's public confession of its 'blackbox' operations. Dozens of high-level officials were prosecuted under the charges of 'crimes against humanity',"  
Nene smirked, "Heh, a computer program that became sentient? That sounds like what happened with Eva from Unit-01, she became sentient also. I guess it does make for a good science-fiction story, a computer program becoming sentient. Seems a bit clich though, but interesting nonetheless,"  
"Hey, I found the other two books," Ranma approached Nene.  
Nene turned toward Ranma, "Ah, that's great,"  
"You want to get going or do you wanna stay here a bit longer so you can surf the Internet some more?" Ranma asked.  
"I'd kinda like to surf around some more," she said, "If you don't mind that is,"  
"I don't mind," he said.  
He leaned forward and looked over her shoulder toward the screen. Because of how close he came to her, she was able to smell the faint lingering fragrance of the shampoo he used. It made her blush.  
"Whatcha reading up on?" he asked curiously.  
"Um, Section-9," she turned toward the screen, wondering if Ranma had seen her blush.  
"What about it?"  
"Just found out some stuff about its exploits and accomplishments," she answered, "Section-9 did some very wonderful things for this world. I feel kinda bad about what's gonna happen to it,"  
"Oh?" Ranma asked, "What do you mean?" "Section-9's been around for about seventy years," she said, "But it seems like it's going to merge with Section-6, a similar section. The difference, it seems, between Section-6 and Section-9 is that Section-9's jurisdiction deals with international cybercrimes while Section-6 is more localized and national. It seems like Section-6 is going to be granted international jurisdiction after the merger,"  
"When's that?" he asked.  
"Don't know," Nene said, "But it shouldn't be long,"  
"What's gonna happen to Motoko and Bateau? Not that I really give a damn after all the crap they gave me," Ranma asked.  
Nene shrugged, "Not too sure. You want I should check it out?"  
Ranma said, "Go ahead. Might as well,"  
Nene began searching around for information about what would happen to Motoko and Bateau after the merger.  
She began typing on the keyboard for a moment. She then frowned when she found out that she wasn't being allowed access to relevant information on the outcome to Motoko's and Bateau's future after the merger.  
"Something the matter?" Ranma asked.  
"I'm having trouble hacking into the government computers," Nene commented, a bit embarrasses.  
Ranma snickered, "What, is it too hard for you?"  
"No," she quickly countered, "It's just that I haven't tried hacking into something of this caliber in a long time and I'm rusty,"  
Ranma chuckled.  
"What, you think I can't do it?" Nene smirked.  
"I didn't say nothing," Ranma grinned as he held his hands up defensively.  
"Care to make a wager on if I can break in?" she asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "Why bother? I know you'll get in,"  
'If I win, I get to marry you. If you win, you get to marry me.' Nene would've liked to have said. That way, either way, it would be a win-win situation with her.  
She giggled.

"She's hacking into the government supercomputer protecting us!" Bateau couldn't believe what he was saying. From his point of view, it was as if she had decided to hack into the supercomputer simply because it was there in the first place. During the brief moment when Nene left Section-9 to search for information on Section-6, they had set up the barrier.  
"I don't think she'll get in," Motoko commented, "She may be attempting to hack into it, but this is no regular computer. This is a government supercomputer. It'll be equivalent to her trying to hack into, say, the United States' Pentagon.

Ranma watched through Nene do her work. He had no real idea what she was doing but figured it was really complicated stuff. Even though it wouldn't be of much use, he had asked her to explain what she was doing as she went along.  
"I'm currently trying to hack into a government server," Nene said, "From there, since security is the same for all government computers, once I break through to any government, I'll have the password to get into other computers,"  
"Whatcha doing now?"  
"First off, the screen I see now is the hardware firewall from the government's side, within its router," Nene gestured, "A firewall is basically something that keeps the outside world from seeing the computer I'm trying to hack into. However, since I know it's there, it's just a matter of breaking through,"  
Nene typed on her keyboard for a few minutes while Ranma watched silently.  
"Right now, I'm trying to force the router to reset," she said, "I just wrote a temporary program that sending a massive amount of corrupt data at once. That way, it'll force the router to reset. Once it does, I can recover the password from it,"  
The screen suddenly changed to display something else.  
"There, I just forced their router to reset," Nene said, typing on her keyboard, "Now, I'm grabbing their password. There, found it,"  
Ranma okay, "So this password will letcha get through?"  
"Kinda," she answered, "This password allows me to reconfigure their router and turn off their firewall. Okay, there, turned the firewall off. See? Now I can see what computers are behind the firewall,"  
"Okay," he said.  
"Here I'm brining up a list of their VPN, or Virtual Private Network, or at least this world's equivalent. It's very similar so I consider it. What this list shows are all the computers connected to the router," she said, "In a sense, this list gives me a map about what computers are connected to the router,"  
"I think I still follow you," he said.  
Nene pointed, "Ah, see that? That's the computer I wanna access. It seems to be the one that contains the information about the merger of Section-6 and Section-9 which should give us information about what will happen to Motoko and Bateau,"  
"Why that computer?" Ranma asked.  
"It's connected to a switch that's of very high-priority," Nene answered, "Therefore, it's easy to assume that the computer is a mainframe. Now, to get into the computer I want, I need to decode the encryption method so that I can actually access the data and see what it's about,"  
"Um, okay, how do you do that?" Ranma asked.  
"It's easy," Nene said, typing on her computer, "This world's encryption strings are protected by this world's equivalent to quad sensor relay circuits. To get to the string to decode, I need to reset the relay circuit by pulling the entire circuit offline at once,"  
She typed on her keyboard a bit.  
"There, knocked it offline," she grinned, "Now that it's offline, it's gonna come back online almost immediately. However, during the time it was offline, I just set up a little Trojan horse I just wrote. This opens up a backdoor,"  
Ranma snickered, "Heh,"  
"What?" Nene asked.  
"Trojan? Backdoor?" Ranma chuckled, "Trojan condoms and backdoor. Get it?"  
Nene blushed a deep shade of red, "Ranma!"  
Ranma held up his hands defensively, "I was just joking. It just sounded funny. That's all,"  
Nene giggled slightly. It did sound funny now that she thought about it.  
"Anyway," she continued, "Now that there's a backdoor, it leaves me input hydras. A hydra is a multi-headed worm,"  
"Ooh, I know what I hydra is," Ranma said, "I fought one once when I was young,"  
Nene paused for a moment, "Huh? You fought a hydra? Aren't those thing mythical?"  
"That's what I thought until I had to fight it," Ranma said, "If it isn't a hydra, then I dunno what it really is. Big big thing. It was called Orochi or something like that. It had several heads and this giant head for a body,"  
"Um," Nene said.  
"I needed to get this spore that grew on its body," Ranma said, "That's because it had mystical healing properties and we needed it to help this guy out named Shinnosuke that kept forgetting stuff,"  
"Um, okay," Nene said.  
"Anyway, go on," Ranma said.  
"I sent out a buncha hydras to infect other computers," Nene said, "That way, it confuses people trying to stop me. Hydras are viruses that open backdoors to other computers. It slows people down because the people trying to prevent me need to work at shutting down multiple backdoors,"  
"Oh," he said.  
"Anyway, because of the Trojan, it leaves a backdoor for me now open to decrypt their encryption string," Nene said, "The hydras sent create havoc which kinda acts as a smoke screen on what I'm doing. Now, since it would probably take years to decrypt their encryption string here using this computer, I'm making all the government computers do the decoding. All their combined computer powers takes only a few seconds to decode it. There, decoded,"  
"That's it?" Ranma asked.  
"Yeah, it's actually pathetically easy for someone like me," Nene said confidently, "But to the average non-hacker, it seems very complicated. In actuality, it isn't. The funny part is that most government computers are much harder to hack into, but it seems like the computer I'm hacking into is a temporary computer so all the necessary protection wasn't implemented,"  
"Wow, that's really cool stuff," Ranma said, very impressed, "You're really smart,"  
Nene smiled happily, "Thanks,"  
"So, basically, you just hacked into some government computer doing all that and it took you about, what, a minute?" Ranma asked.  
Nene nodded, "Yeah, give or take. I'm a bit rusty so it took me longer than usual,"  
"Wow," he said.  
"Do you have an question?" Nene asked.  
"Yeah, can you start all over and explain everything again?"  
Nene nearly fell out of her seat. She thought Ranma actually knew what she was talking about.

"What the hell?" Motoko looked at her screen.  
Bateau scratched his head, "Is she re-hacking back into the computer? Why is she doing that? She already got in before,"  
"What, is she showing Ranma how it's being done step-by-step?" Motoko guessed, "It doesn't makes sense,"  
"Well, whatever the case, we need to do something about it," Bateau said, "All those hydras she released when she got through had left every computer on the network with multiple backdoors open,"  
Motoko sighed, "How is this possible? How does she break through state of the art technology so easily?"  
"I think it's because we rely too much on attack barriers," Bateau answered, "The fact that attack barriers don't have any effect on her leads us with nothing much we can do. How the heck do you stop someone that can't be wiped and can't be traced?"  
"Damn, all we can do is just sit and pray that she does nothing malicious," Motoko sighed, "I can't believe we are completely at her mercy,"  
"Look, she stopped,"

Nene stopped what she was doing to talk to Ranma.  
"So since you know how to hack into government computers, have you found out stuff that the government doesn't want the public to know?" Ranma asked curiously.  
Nene thought for a moment, "Hm, lettme think. Oh, I remember one that really surprised me,"  
"What is it?"  
"This place called Area 51," Nene said, "It's located over in the States, in Nevada. It was this government secret facility on the great salt flats. You know anything about it? No one really knows anything about it. The only thing known is that an alien ship crashed in New Mexico. It was rumored that Area 51 was developed so it could actually research and investigate that crashed alien ship,"  
"Aliens, huh?" Ranma didn't seem that impressed.  
"Here's the funny thing I found out when I was snooping around," Nene said, "Area 51 isn't even the real thing. It was purposely built and kept secret-like so that the public would focus on that. The public knows about it, but doesn't know what happens inside of it. That's because nothing does. Area 51 was solely built to distract the public from the REAL Area 51, which is located somewhere in China,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Hm, China, huh? I wonder if that's the reason why we were shot at by American soldiers during our trip to China during our ten-year trip away from Japan, when it was me and Ryoga and Akane,"  
"You mean after the incident where you all supposedly died in that seppukku blast that destroyed the supercomputer that was about to self-destruct?" Nene asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep,"  
"Wow, for all we know, you could've wandered into the real Area 51," Nene giggled.  
Ranma shrugged, "Who knows. I've seen a lot of things and been to a lot of places. Wouldn't be all that surprised if I really did,"  
"Hey, speaking of which, I should find out more about this world's Japanese government is trying to hide," Nene suggested.  
"Sure," Ranma shrugged.  
Nene turned back toward the computer. After a short time typing she asked, "What about Motoko and Bateau? Dontcha wanna find out about the merger and what would happen to them?"  
"Heh, check on them as well," Ranma chuckled, "Man, wouldn't it be funny if Section-9 is some huge government cover-up,"  
"Yeah right," Nene giggled.

Motoko and Bateau just watched the screen as Nene wandered around in the government's network. By now, they have resigned themselves to a fate worse than death. The government was going to have them executed for allowing something like this to happen. It was their responsibility to protect the government from something like this. Heck, something like this was one of the sole reasons why Section-9 was created.  
"Damn, and we were so close to retiring, too," Bateau chuckled, "It's kind of ironic, like that a movie. Just, say, a few days from retirement, you die,"  
Motoko sighed. She didn't like being reminded.  
"Well, since we're screwed, we might as well enjoy what's left of our remaining time," Bateau said, "Hopefully, Nene snoops around someplace where even we don't have an clearance to know. That way, it least the saying 'If I tell you, I hafta kill you' kinda holds true for us,"  
Motoko headed for the door, "I'm not going to just sit around and do nothing,"  
"What do you plan on doing?" he asked, getting up as well.  
"Stay here and monitor the girl's movements and keep me updated. Even though it's a long shot, we can at least search random places in hopes of finding her sitting in front of a computer," Motoko said.  
"But there are millions and millions of computers in this city," Bateau commented, "We don't even know if she's still in the city. Heck, for all we know, she could be hacking in from a damn cell phone,"  
"Doesn't matter," Motoko said, "It's still better than just sitting around and doing nothing,"  
Bateau had to agree. The problem was that they were basically looking for a needle in a haystack. Actually, they were against impossible odds. Even if they do manage to find that damn needle, they most likely had Ranma to contend with.  
"Good luck," he said as Motoko left the room.

"Do you see what I see?" Nene asked.  
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am," Ranma said, surprised at what he was reading on the screen, "Do you think this is true?"  
Nene nodded, "I'm inside the government's own computers. Of course it is,"  
"Do you think Motoko or Bateau know what going to happen to them?" he asked.  
"I really doubt it," Nene said, feeling sad for those two.  
Nene had stumbled upon Motoko's and Bateau's fate after the merger of Section-  
9 and Section-6. Their bodies will be dismantled. They're considered property of Section-9 and will be disposed of.  
"Damn, that's some messed up stuff," Ranma stated, "Lettme get this straight, they've worked for Section-9 for, what, seventy or so years, done stuff equivalent to saving this world countless times, and all they get is being dismantled after the merger? Seems like they're gonna get the bad end of the deal,"  
"It says here that they believe they can finally retire after Net-Master is caught," Nene stated, "They're only being kept around until Net-Master is caught and will be promptly disposed of afterwards. They would've been disposed of over ten years ago had Net-Master not shown up,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Damn, they're sure in for a surprise,"  
"That's wrong," Nene said, "They've done so much for this world through their work and they're just going to be brushed off just like that? That's not right,"  
"Why are they being disposed of?" Ranma asked.  
"They're labeled as geriatric," Nene said, "Even though their bodies are in tip-top shape, their minds are that of hundred-year-olds. The government now considers them liabilities because it'll only be a matter of time before their minds start to go. They're considered unfit to live much longer,"  
Ranma said nothing. He was over a hundred so he took it rather personal that a government would consider him unfit to live.  
"This is crazy," Nene stated, "It also states that their maintenance bills are astronomical. This is because it costs the government literally billions of dollar to keep constantly replace the nanomachines that prevent them from suffering from this world's equivalent of Alzheimer's Disease. It's called 'Ghost-Whitening' in this world, but fundamentally, it seems like it's the same kinda disease,"  
Ranma said, "Alzheimer's? I thought it was called 'Old-Timers',"  
"No, it isn't called that," Nene said, "Anyway, it seems like even though they have a fully functional body, nature wants to take its course with their minds. Afterall, they do have human minds,"  
"Alzheimer's, huh? Does that mean they can hide their own Easter eggs?" Ranma smirked.  
"That's just plain mean, Ranma," Nene was surprised at Ranma's lack of tact, "And for your information, my mom suffered Alzheimer's before she died,"  
Ranma became deathly silent, regretting that comment immensely.  
"Man, I sure feel like a dick right now," Ranma stated.  
"It's okay," Nene said, "Some people deal with things differently than others,"  
"So, what do you think's gonna happen to the two of them?" Ranma asked, wanting to change the subject. "I'm not too sure," Nene shrugged, "However, they're going to be in for a big surprise when they find out what's going to happen to them,"  
"Man, the shit's gonna hit the fan for them," Ranma stated, "We gotta do something to help them,"  
"What about them hating you, or us, it seems?" she asked.  
Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Who cares about that? When they find out about this, they'll realize they've got a lot more other things to worry about,"  
"How can we help them?" she asked.  
"Well, we can easily solve that Alzheimer's and senility problem," Ranma said, "I can have it where their brains can be fixed up easily,"  
"How?" she asked.  
"Easily," he said, "I'm gonna go out and look for her and pass her the news. You stay here and find out more about what's happening. Okay?"  
"Okay,"  
Motoko ran down the street.  
A mix of emotions was flooding through her. She was feeling anger and sorrow and fear all at the same time. She was angry toward Nene and Ranma for having turned her life upside-down. She felt sorrow at the realization that her life's work was going to be undone by a mere girl. And she felt fear of what was going to happen to her when the higher ups find out that their government computers had been compromised. She was definitely held accountable for whatever Nene did.  
She had stopped at every store she had passed so far in hopes of finding Ranma and Nene. She needed to stop them before damage was really done.  
She was caught completely off-guard when she rounded a corner and nearly smashed into Ranma. Because she had been in a full sprint at the time, she was unable to stop in time for when she caught sight of Ranma.  
Luckily for the both of them, or perhaps her more likely, Ranma reacted in time and grabbed her before they collided into each other.  
"You!" Motoko shouted, suddenly filling up with animosity toward the man standing before her.  
Ranma regarded Motoko for a moment, "Yeah, what about me?"  
Motoko reached for her gun. To her surprise, she found out she had forgotten to take it with her. She found this rather odd because she always remembered to carry her gun with her. Realizing she had no gun, she realized she had to fight him in hand-to-hand combat. The fact that her attempts had been futile back then didn't seem to bother her as she mounted a vicious offense, punching and kicking at him with deadly force.  
Ranma easily dodged all of Motoko's attacks, barely moving from his standing position. The fact that Ranma's hands were in his pocket the whole time was even more aggravating for Motoko.  
"Will you please quit attacking me?" Ranma seemed annoyed.  
Motoko persisted to attack.  
"Mother fucker! Quit attacking me!" Ranma reached out and grabbed Motoko's incoming punch. Although he had a thing against hitting girls, or at least holding back when fighting a girl, it seemed like Motoko was so angry that she was beyond reasoning and needed to be brought down a peg or two.  
Motoko gave a yelp of surprise as she suddenly found herself flipped bodily over Ranma's shoulder where she slammed on the ground on her back.  
She tried to kick at his knees as she rolled backward and flipped back to her feet.  
Ranma stood there, waiting for her next move, "You're NOT going to beat me so why dontcha just give up?"  
Motoko charged again, attempting to land a roundhouse to Ranma's head, only to have her leg grabbed. As Motoko realized Ranma had intercepted her leg, Ranma stepped forward and gently kicked out the one leg she was balancing on, sending her to the ground once again.  
She rolled backward on the ground and flipped back up to her feet.  
Ranma sighed as he noticed that Motoko still seemed hell-bent on fighting him.  
He smirked. "Ya don't give up, do ya?"

new stuff 2/3

Bateau found himself as a loss of words as he regarded the screen.  
The screen was displaying exactly what Nene was seeing. It moved at a very slow pace, indicating that Nene was taking her time actually reading the data being displayed. Since there was nothing much he could do, all he could do was observe. What Nene did or wanted to look at was completely out of his control. "Oh my god!" Bateau said to himself, "This has got to be some kind of joke,"  
'Motoko, you won't believe the stuff I'm seeing right now,' Bateau communicated with Motoko, 'Nene has stumbled upon some stuff that I'm sure neither of us know or are supposed to know, and you're not going to like it,'  
'Not now, I'm busy,' came Motoko's voice.  
'But-' he began.  
'I'm busy!' she said before closing off her communications channel.  
Bateau, knowing that Motoko must have something serious to attend to for it to merit her not even wanting to hear what he had to say, decided the only thing he could do was continue on with more information-gathering. Because, this is something he definitely didn't want to miss out on.

"Where's Net-Master?" Motoko said in a cold voice.  
As much as she hated Ranma, finding where Nene was of higher priority. The fact that Nene could probably wipe out top secret government information made her animosity toward Ranma seem petty. "Why the heck are you asking me?" he asked, scratching his head.  
"Don't play coy!" Motoko said.  
"I don't know whatcha talkin' about," Ranma said truthfully, "Who the heck are you talking about? Who's this Net-Master?"  
He remembered Nene mentioning something about that name but nothing in detail.  
"Nene!" Motoko said.  
"Nene is Net-Master?" Ranma asked. A second later, he started laughing, "Wow, maybe those nanomachines are breaking down and you're going senile,"  
Motoko wondered what the heck Ranma meant by that.  
"I came here to tell you that the government plans on having you, um, killed or whatever the equivalent is on this world," Ranma said.  
"What are you talking about?" Motoko didn't believe a word he was saying.  
"Nene just hacked into this government computer," Ranma said, "While snooping around, she found out that you and Bateau are going to be disposed of when Section-6, I think, merges with Section-9,"  
"What?"

Nene continued to happily snoop around on the government computer.  
"Hm, so Section-9 will be no longer once Net-Master is apprehended, huh?" she said to herself, "Exactly who is this Net-Master person, where did he or she come from?"  
She typed the keyboard for a bit, hoping to find some solid information about who Net-Master was. All Nene knew was that Net-Master had created a virus that reminded her of an anti-SPAM virus she made.  
"Ah, here we go," she said, "Net-Master. Sex: Unknown. Origin: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown. Characteristics: Unknown. Great, what kind of information is this? This is a government database for God's sake. How can the government not even have information on who this person is?"  
Nene, feeling like she was being challenged, found herself very interested in finding out who Net-Master was. There had to be some form of information on him or her floating around somewhere on the government computer. All she needed to do was search around more thoroughly.  
After a short while of searching, she came across something that seemed relevant to Net-Master.  
"Net-Master, although completely unknown to this date, had been known to leave a line of code behind with every virus sent and cyber-crime made," Nene read aloud. She then read the line of code that was clearly displayed on the screen.  
The tag read: 'Ph34r m3. l33t h4x0r, N3N3, W45 h34r'.  
Nene didn't even need to think pause for a moment as she translated it on the fly, 'Fear me. Elite hacker, Nene, was hear'. The fact that 'hear' was used instead of 'here' was something Nene remembered Ritsuko commenting about after Ritsuko had finally deciphered the message.  
Nene did a double take, "W-what? T-that's my tag!"

"You are NOT going to beat me," Ranma said to the struggling Motoko as he carried her under his arm as he walked toward the library. Since he was sure he wasn't as good at explaining Motoko's situation as Nene, he wanted Nene to do the talking instead. He was pretty sure Nene wouldn't mind.  
Motoko continued to peer daggers at Ranma.  
"Are you going to listen or not?" he asked.  
"Why should I listen?" she snapped.  
"I'm trying to help you," he said, "In case you haven't noticed, perhaps because your judgment is constantly clouded by your animosity toward me, but I'm actually not some bad guy," He paused for a moment, "Actually, I take that back. I'm a bad guy when it's convenient. Otherwise, most of the time, I'm a good guy,"  
Motoko said, "And that's supposed to make me feel any better?"  
"Um, not really," Ranma said, "Wait. It's not the good guy bad guy thing I was talking about. What I mean is the fact that I'm trying to help you,"  
"What makes you think I want your help? Or even believe that you intend to help me?" Motoko said, "I wasn't born yesterday,"  
Ranma regarded Motoko for a moment. Motoko reminded him a lot of a young Akane. She seemed very close-minded to what he was about to say. He grew up having to deal with close-minded people, which usually lead to him ending up in situations that never should have happened.  
He then sighed, "Are you going to listen to what I say?"  
"Why should I?" she snapped.  
Ranma placed Motoko down on her feet. This surprised her because she was not expecting Ranma to do that. This further reinforced her believe that Ranma was extremely unpredictable.  
"Go away," Ranma said in a very cold voice.  
"W-what?" she was still a bit surprised at what Ranma did.  
"Go away," he said, "I'm not obligated to do shit for you,"  
Ranma turned around and proceeded to walk away. He knew Nene was going to get angry at him because he was sure Nene wanted him to help out. However, he was his own person and he had no gripes about not helping a person who didn't want help. From his point of view, Motoko was a big girl. She could take care of herself.  
Motoko found herself staring at Ranma's back as he walked away. She was in a momentary state of shock from what had transpired. For some reason, Ranma had made her feel like she had done something wrong when she had not.  
"Wait!" she called out to him.  
"Fuck off," Ranma said.  
Without waiting around for Motoko to catch up to him, Ranma leapt up into the air, a giant pair of wings emerging from his back, and took flight. Not wanting to run off simply because Motoko was a fast runner and would most likely chase after him, he figured taking flight would allow him to lose her much easier.  
Motoko just stood there, much like all the nearby pedestrians that witness Ranma's departure, in a complete state of shock.  
"W-what the hell is he?" she stated.

Nene read the screen as she tried to make out heads or tails of what was going on. "How's it possible that I'm this Net-Master person?" she asked herself, leaning back in her chair, scratching her chin. Even though she knew that she should always expect the unexpected, especially ever since she met Ranma, the thought that this world possessed an alternate version of her made her head spin.  
"Man, there's another version of me on this world?" she said, "It's too much of a coincidence for it not to be true. It does explain the virus used. If I wanted to do something bad to this world, modifying that anti-SPAM virus to spread to other computers is definitely a way to go,"  
Nene sighed as she realized something else.  
"But I would never do something so malicious as infect the world with such a virus," Nene said, "If my other self does exist, then is she some kind of evil version of myself? What made her do that?"  
"Yo," Ranma's voice startled her.  
"R-Ranma," Nene said, "Don't do that!"  
Ranma gave a shy smile, "Sorry. I thought you heard me,"  
Nene took a moment to calm herself down before asking, "So, did you find Bateau or Motoko? Did you relay the message?"  
"Yeah, I bumped into Motoko," he answered, "As to whether not she chose to believe what I told her, that's entirely up to her,"  
"Where's she now?" Nene asked.  
Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. So, how goes surfing the Internet? Find anything interesting?"  
"Yeah, most definitely did," Nene said.  
Ranma grabbed a nearby seat and sat down right next to her, the back of the chair facing her as he sat down backwards on it.  
"Whatcha find out?" he asked.  
"Um, I think there's some kind of alternate version of myself that exist on this world," Nene said.  
Ranma fell out of his chair, "What?"  
Nene pressed a few keys on the keyboard and then pointed toward the screen. It read: Ph34r m3. l33t h4x0r, N3N3, W45 h34r.  
"What the heck does that mean?" Ranma asked.  
"It's my 'tag'," she said, "You know how I say I leave a mark on the computers I hack into? That's what I leave behind,"  
"Okay," he said, "But I still don't get it,"  
"This isn't the mark that I left," Nene answered, "This is the mark that that Net-Master person left behind, not I,"  
"Whoa, that's pretty messed up," Ranma said.  
"D-do you think there's some kind of alternate version of myself on this world?" she asked, a bit worried about what she was going to hear.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, there is a chance,"  
"But she's bad," Nene said, very worried, "I would never do what she did. It's like she's some kind of evil version of myself,"  
Ranma noticed that Nene seemed really bothered about this so he decided not to make a joke about it. In essence, the thought of an evil Nene was kind of cool. It made him wonder how a cute little red-haired girl could possibly be evil. Then again, perhaps he shouldn't say anything since he hadn't been to quite that many worlds yet. For all he knew, there could exist some world where there was such a girl, perhaps a world that had five Magical Girls based on planets and the little red-  
haired girl was evil incarnate.  
"If she is some alternate version of yourself, she could've become what is now because of the kind of life she's lived," he answered, "Afterall, look at how I turned out when that God-version of myself lived with a person that was said to have failed at trying to destroy the world. Perhaps the alternate version of you went through something similar,"  
"Y-you think so?" she said.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Why not?"  
"W-we have to find her," Nene said, "Perhaps we can help her,"  
"Man, wouldn't it be cool if that alternate version of yourself is the short-  
haired blond version I mentioned about," Ranma chuckled, "We'd have ourselves two exact Nenes but the two of 'em would look completely different,"  
Nene gave Ranma and odd look.  
"Nevermind," Ranma dismissed, "Anyway, how do we go about finding your alternate version?"  
"I really don't know," Nene said, "She's like me and is really skilled with computers so she left behind no tracks that could reveal her location,"  
"My, aren't we modest?" Ranma smirked. Nene blushed.  
Ranma chuckled.  
"Um, anyway," she said, composing herself, "Since we can't actually find out where she is through computer since she would never leave behind a trail, we have to go about it differently,"  
Ranma scratched his head, "Well, that shouldn't be too hard. If she's exactly like you, you should have similar tastes and such. Perhaps we can search places where your alternate self will most likely be," Nene blushed slightly. She never really went out much back on her world, unless to go to Friday dinner. If that was the case with the alternate Nene, then it would be basically impossible to find her since she could be anywhere. And since she would rarely go outside, then there is no chance that they could stumbled upon her.  
"Um, I'm not like the others. I-I don't go out much," she stated, very embarrassed, "So, if she's like me, she'll probably stay home a lot,"  
Ranma regarded her a moment. He then smiled, "There's nothing wrong with that, not going out much,"  
"Still," she said, "If I did like going out much, maybe it would've been easier finding my alternate version. I like staying in front of my computer so there's a chance she's just the same,"  
"Well, what about your hobbies?" he asked, "Do you do particular stuff on the Internet?"  
Nene's eyes widened, "Yeah, I do. I like reading anime fanfiction. If I hang around major anime fanfiction archives, maybe I might find her,"  
"You like anime fanfiction?" Ranma asked, "I never knew that. When didja like that?"  
"I started liking it about a year ago," she said, "I usually visit a site that contains only finished fanfiction,"  
"Cool," he said, "At least we've got something to go by. There probably aren't many of that. I'm sure there aren't that many places that specializes in archiving completed stories,"  
"Wait," Nene said, "I-I don't think that would be possible,"  
"Why not?" he asked.  
"Um, it's because, um, I like anime," she said, "but I only got into anime because of you. I started liking it only about a year ago,"  
"Oh," he realized what Ranma was getting at, "I guess if it weren't for me exposing you to it, it's very likely you wouldn't like or know much about anime?"  
Nene nodded, "Right,"  
"Wow, I never knew you liked anime," Ranma said, very happy, "That's so cool. I'm not the only one that likes it in the group,"  
Nene blushed. She didn't know why either. She truly liked anime and she knew she didn't have to worry about Ranma thinking she got into anime as a means of getting closer to him. However, she got into it when he wasn't around, when all of them believed he would never come back.  
"Hm, could there be something else?" Ranma asked. Nene's eyes widened.  
"I like fixing antique clocks," she stated, "Do you think there's a chance my alternate version likes doing that? Perhaps she might show up at a pawn shop to buy a broken clock to fix,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Dontcha think that's quite a long shot?"  
"It's better than nothing," she said.  
"You're right," he said.  
Nene started typing on the keyboard, "I'm going to do a quick search for pawn shops in the area,"  
Ranma grinned, "Wow, this is so cool, two Nenes,"

new stuff 3/8

Ranma and Nene walked down the road together.  
In was starting to get dark as evening was starting to roll around. The sky was clear and the air was warm. In Nene's hands was a small piece of paper that contained the address of an antique shop and scribbled-down directions on how to get to said shop. The two of them, having finished eating their meal after stopping off at a random place to eat, were on their way toward the shop, the only one in all of Japan.  
"Man, what are the chances that only one antique shop exists?" Nene commented.  
Ranma chuckled, "Probably a high chance. Imagine if this we were in a story and there existed hundreds of those shops? It'll take forever for us to search them. No writer would wanna write that,"  
Nene cast Ranma an odd glance, "Huh? You say some really really weird stuff, you know that?"  
Ranma chuckled, "I was just joking around,"  
"What's funny is that there only being one kind of antique shop isn't all that surprising," Nene commented. It's perfectly understandable why there would exist only one shop,"  
"And why's that?" he had to ask, wondering how good Nene's deductive skills were.  
"We are in a technologically advanced world," she answered, "Antique-looking items can easily be created, given this world's technology. Therefore, stuff considered antique wouldn't be of much use since this world's technology can basically duplicate such things flawlessly. The only thing of worth in this world is information. Heck, that's why there anti-hacking squads like the one Bateau and Motoko belong to,"  
Ranma was very impressed. He knew Nene was very smart, but he would never had figured something like that out. In terms of brilliance, it was as if she was a combination of Ritsuko and Lisa, possessing extensive knowledge in both the field of computers and robots.  
"It's too bad that we have no idea if this is a good lead," Nene said, tapping on the piece of paper, "This antique shop stays open twenty-four hours a day. There's no way we can stake a place out, especially when we have no idea what or who we are looking for," Ranma shrugged, "It shouldn't be that hard. It's not like I sleep anyway. I basically can just wait for as long as I want without having to worry about stuff like eating or sleeping or such. That way, we don't hafta worry about watching the shop in shifts for times when you're sleeping or need to eat,"  
Nene was silent for a moment, "But won't you get bored? I don't know about you, but I definitely don't like the thought of doing stakeout especially when we don't know if this lead is something worth checking out,"  
"Heh, don't worry. As impatient as I sometimes am, I can be also really patient," Ranma said, "Keep in mind that I was alive and well and stuck in that God-version of myself's body without being able to do anything but just observe. That sure teaches you patience,"  
"I never knew that," Nene said.  
"No one knows," Ranma said softly, "You're actually the first person to know about that,"  
"Y-you've told me a lot of stuff about yourself that no one seems to know about," she commented, "How come you're telling me all of this? N-not that I don't appreciate your trust in me, mind you. It's just that I find it rather surprising that you're telling me all these unknown things about yourself that no one else knows,"  
"No particular reason," Ranma said, "You're with me right now. If you weren't here, I'd most likely end up telling it to someone else, whoever is with me at the time,"  
"Oh," Nene felt a bit sad. Perhaps she had been getting her hopes. Ranma noticed his comments seemed to have hurt Nene's feelings, "I didn't mean to say it quite like that,"  
"It's okay," Nene gave a fake smile, "I understand,"  
"Man, I glad that the store's close by," Ranma commented, "Heck, it's only walking distance from here. That's so cool, if that Net-Master, or should I say other version of you, are here in the same city,"  
"Let's just say I do bump into the other version of myself. W-what do I say to her when I see her?" Nene asked nervously, "How does one go about talking to oneself?"  
"I usually start off with saying 'yo'," Ranma answered.  
"You know what I mean," she said, "If she's the same as me, would there be any need to talk? Wouldn't we know what we are going to say even before we say it? Afterall, we are probably the same person,"  
Ranma chuckled, "No need to get all anxious about that. You may be the same person, but you're also different, what with the fact that you two undergone totally different experiences,"  
"I guess you have a point," Nene said, "But still, it's just weird,"  
"True,"  
"What about Motoko and Bateau?" Nene changed the subject, "What do you think they're going to do now that they're aware of what's in store for them?"  
Ranma shrugged, "I have no real idea. Keep in mind that I did talk to Motoko and offer to help her out if she needed help, but basically spat in my face,"  
"Could it because she hates you?" Nene smirked.  
Ranma nodded, "Most likely. But still, I simply let it be known that I'll help out if she needs it. She can probably take care of herself so there's noting much we should worry about,"  
"That's true," Nene said, "She's pretty cool,"  
Ranma did a double take, "W-what? Cool?"  
"If it weren't for the fact that she's trying to kill you, she's probably a really cool person," Nene commented.  
Ranma scratched his head.  
"After reading about what she's done in her line of work, she's the type of operative I would aspire to be," Nene stated.  
"But you're just a dispatcher," Ranma said dumbly.  
"What do you mean by 'just a dispatcher'?" she asked defensively, "It's a very important job, what I do,"  
Ranma took a cautious step back away from her, "No need to get angry. I guess I shoulda worded that differently,"  
"Even though I'm just a dispatcher, I still like what I'm doing," she smiled a bit, "I could've been promoted several times by now, but I'm happy doing what I do. That's what counts I believe. It's just that now that I see what Motoko does, I wouldn't mind doing something like that. Of course, A.D. Police has nothing like that since stuff like that doesn't exist in our world,"  
Ranma said, "Well, if you like what she does, why not see if you can get a job doing something like that on this world and stay here?"  
"What? Me? Stay on this world?" Nene gasped, the idea never having crossed her mind until now.  
Ranma noticed the reaction, "Well, I guess that'll never happen, you staying here. But then again, why not see if you can set up some kind of division similar to that Section-9 think Motoko does for our world? Maybe it's not so out there,"  
Nene said, "I doubt that would ever happen,"  
"Hey, you never know,"

new stuff 3/9

Motoko entered her office, feeling very much frustrated. "There's something I think you really need to hear," Bateau said. He had been in her office the whole time observing Nene's hacking movements through the computers before he realized Nene seemed to have become disinterested and simply logged off.  
"What is it?" she asked, not looking forward to whatever bad news she was about to hear. "I don't know if this is all some kind of ruse from Nene, but it seems like Section-9 will be merging with Section-6 soon," he said. "What?" Motoko said. Ranma had mentioned about that earlier which got her thinking. However, she didn't believe him. The fact that Bateau now mentioned it meant that this was something she really needed to look into.  
Motoko hated Section-6. They were both very similar divisions, dealing with cyber-crimes, Section-9 having International jurisdiction while Section-6 local. The problem between both divisions was that they were constantly at each others' throats over what cyber-crime is considered within their own jurisdiction.  
"I monitored Nene's movements the whole time while you were out," Bateau said, "Unless she knew she was being monitored and fabricated what I saw, it seems like we are in for a rude awakening really soon,"  
"Like how we will be disposed of soon?" she asked.  
Bateau said, "How'd you know?"  
Motoko leaned up against the side of her chair, "Ranma mentioned something about that before, but I dismissed it,"  
"You bumped into Ranma?" Bateau asked.  
"Yeah, but only briefly," she said, "Anyway, what do we know so far?"  
"Not much," he answered, "It could be all fabricated but I'm keeping an open mind. It seems like our 'retirement' is something more along the lines of our 'disposal'. Although there's no specified time, it seems like Section-9 and Section-6 will be merging soon,"  
Motoko's lips became a thin line. She then asked, "What about this and us being disposed of?"  
"Well, I guess that's expected," Bateau shrugged, "Our bodies are a part of Section-9. When Section-9 is no more, neither will our bodies. The government's no longer going to fund the maintenance of our bodies, so, basically, we are shit out of luck,"  
Motoko said nothing.  
"The government's hiding the fact that both of us are suffering from Ghost-  
Whitening Syndrome," Bateau said, "Even though we'll be given civilian bodies, it's basically useless since our minds won't be all there anymore,"  
"What?" Motoko was shocked to hear that, "You're kidding me, right?"  
Ghost-Whitening Syndrome was basically this world's version of Alzheimer's Disease. Even though the body could stay young and in perfect working order by constantly being repaired and maintained, the brain could not. As immortal as their bodies were, their brains were not and age would soon take its toll.  
"Are you sure?" Motoko asked, "How long has this been kept secret?"  
"I'm sure about what I saw," Bateau said, "Whether it's true or not, I don't know. It seems like we've been suffering from that for around thirty years,"  
"What? Thirty years?" Motoko was absolutely shocked.  
Their contract with Section-9 was that the moment any indication that their mind was going to go, they would no longer have to work for them. This meant that they could retire and be given civilian bodies where they could live out whatever remained of their lives in complete comfort, before their minds finally failed them. The fact that their disease had been hidden from them meant that they had been working for around thirty years longer than need be. What was worse was that that disease at this late of stage was one hundred percent fatal. Being given civilian bodies now was useless since their minds were far gone.  
"How's that possible?" Motoko asked, "Are they using nanomachines to stop our Ghost-Whitening Syndrome?"  
Bateau nodded, "Yep,"  
"Fucking bastards," Motoko swore. If what Bateau said was true, that meant both she and Bateau were basically screwed. If the government stopped maintaining their bodies, they would die because their mind would surely go. Because their diseases had been kept from secret from them for so long, that meant they basically needed to depend on government funding to keep on living. The fact that the government planned on stopping funding of their bodies now meant death for them.  
From a different perspective, it was similar to finding out that you were suffering from heart disease that was thirty years old, which was absolutely fatal at that stage. To make matters worse, you also find out that your heart had been replaced by the government without your knowing so they could have you continue to work for them, which was now thirty years so far for that matter. And last but not least, you also suddenly find out that the government had decided it no longer wanted to fund your artificial heart which meant you will die immediately without such funding. And worst of all was that, had you been told about your heart disease, it meant you could retire early and live your life comfortably for the rest of your remaining life, which could be for quite a while.  
What really hurt Motoko was that their predicament meant that that meant they would have no life outside their lives as Section-9 operatives.  
"It could all be a ruse," Bateau said, "Maybe Nene is just messing with us. But hell, if she is, she definitely has me fooled and spooked about it,"  
Motoko scratched her chin, deep in thought, "I wonder. This was probably what Ranma was trying to warn me about,"  
"Speaking of him, what happened when you encountered him?" he asked, "Where did you see him?"  
"Ranma found me actually," Motoko said, "I was looking around for him, as he me. We bumped into each other just a couple of blocks away from here and he said something about Section-9 merging with Section-6. He also mentioned about how we will be 'disposed' of which, I guess, refers to our current predicament,"  
"If this predicament is true," Bateau tried to keep a realistic mind.  
"Right," she said, "Anyway, naturally, I didn't believe him. Before I knew what happened, he said just left," "Didn't you chase after him?" he asked.  
"I couldn't," she said, "These giant wings shot out from his back like some kind of angel. Before I knew what happened, he jumped into the air and flew away,"  
"What? You're kidding me, right?"

Ranma sneeze as he and Nene were walking down the street.  
"Someone must be talking about you," Nene giggled.  
"Yeah, they're probably talking about me and how lucky I am to be hanging out with this super hot chick I'm always seen with," Ranma grinned, giving her a gentle nudge.  
Nene blushed a deep shade of red, "Ranma,"  
Ranma chuckled.  
Nene, not liking the subject to be her, tried to compose herself and change the subject as well.  
"Why do you keep using 'chick' when referring to females?" Nene narrowed her eyes.  
Ranma chuckled as he held his hands up defensively, "Sorry. I forgot. I'll try and stop that from now on,"  
Nene smiled, feeling like she had just won a battle.  
Ranma didn't say much, a bit confused at Nene's reaction to his little comment. He was usually the teasing type, but the comments he made toward her, usually harmless comments made to ruffle her feathers, didn't seem to cause as much as an effect on her as other girls. Most girls found him very handsome and would find themselves stammering with a reply, but not Nene. She seemed to have cut right through his teasing and to the heart of the matter, his male chauvinism.  
"Can you excuse me for a sec?" he said, quickly walking off.  
Nene stood where she was in confusion, wondering where Ranma was headed. She watched as he walked up to a woman that was waiting to cross the street. The woman, although half-cybernetic, was very pretty and had long flowing brown hair and stood just an inch shorter than Ranma. Nene wouldn't be surprised if the woman was some kind of model, provided models actually existed on this world.  
"Excuse me. You're hot," Ranma said from out of the blue.  
The woman blushed as she regarded Ranma for a moment, "T-thank you,"  
"What's your name?" he asked.  
"Miroa," she answered nervously, "And you?"  
"Ranma," he said. "A-are you from around here?" she said, unused to asking such a question. Guys usually asked such a question.  
"Not really," he answered, "Say, I'm hungry. Wanna get something to eat?"  
"Well, I already ate, but, s-sure," she answered, "I don't mind,"  
Although not hungry, she didn't really care. She was interested in getting to know more about who this striking young man was standing before her.  
Ranma suddenly acted like he remembered something, "Oh, wait. I can't. I hafta do something,"  
"W-what?" she asked.  
"I hafta be somewhere," he said, "Well, it was nice meeting ya. Have a nice life,"  
The woman just stared, in a state of shock as Ranma walked away. Unable to form the words, all she could do was just stand there in confusion.  
Ranma walked up to Nene. Nene seemed every bit as confused as Ranma was.  
"What was that about?" Nene asked him. She had been too far away to overhear the conversation.  
"Um, I was asking for directions," he said glibly.  
Nene narrowed her eyes, "Right. Guys don't ask for directions, especially asking a girl for directions,"  
"Man, there's no fooling ya, is there?" Ranma said, a bit impressed, "Nah, I just wanted to ask her something. It's not really important,"  
"Oh," she said. She couldn't help but felt a bit jealous toward that woman. She had no idea what their conversation had been about, but couldn't help but felt like it was something along the lines of Ranma hitting on her because that woman was so pretty.  
"Hey, I'm hungry," Ranma asked, "Wanna get something to eat?"  
Nene gave Ranma very shocked look, "What? Again?"  
"Yeah," Ranma smiled, "How about it?"  
Nene, as much as she liked just sitting around a table and chatting with Ranma and enjoying a meal, had her limits.  
"We already ate," she answered him, "No thanks,"  
"Oh," he seemed disappointed and surprised.  
"If you're hungry, I don't mind coming along," she said, "But as to eating, I'm still full from the last meal so I won't be eating with you,"  
"Oh," he said.  
"So, you wanna go eat?" she asked.  
"Nah," he said, "I can wait,"  
"Okay," she was a bit relieved.  
She looked down at the sheet of paper, "We should hurry up and get to that antique shop. There's always that slim chance that that alternate version of myself might go there at some odd time. It'd be a real shame if we miss her by a few minutes,"  
"Okay," he said.  
Together, Nene and Ranma headed down the street.  
Ranma shot a quick glance toward Nene as she tried to make heads or tails out of her own handwriting. Because she always used a keyboard, her penmanship was atrocious and looked like chicken scratches.  
He felt very happy to have come here with Nene. Unlike all the other girls, she wasn't chasing after him. He really liked that fact, that she wasn't after him like other girls. It made him happy. "What?" she asked, noticing Ranma looking at her. It made her feel a bit self-  
conscious but she managed to conceal her emotions, "D-do I have something on my face?"  
She began wiping at her face, figuring that there was some small sauce stain on her cheek, left there from her last meal. If there was, that was so mean of Ranma not to have told her until now.  
"No, nothing's on your face," Ranma said.  
"Then why are you looking at me like that?" she asked. It wasn't as if she was as beautiful as that woman Ranma was just talking to and that he couldn't help but find himself awed by her beauty. Nene was cute, but definitely not very beautiful like all the other girls that he usually came in contact with.  
"Nevermind," Ranma turned his gave forward.  
Nene began wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt, "There is something on my face, isn't there?" She made this squeaking noise, as if she was pouting from embarrassment.  
Ranma chuckled warmly, amused at her antics. Yes, Nene made him happy.

new stuff 3/11

Nene yawned but tried to suppress it.  
"You must be tired," Ranma commented.  
Nene tried to hide the fact that she was really tired, "No, I'm fine,"  
It was fairly late at night but not too late. Although Nene usually went to sleep very late, the fact that she had no computer in front of her to occupy her time made her want to go to sleep much earlier than usual. The two of them were sitting on a bench situated across the street from the antique shop. They had arrived at their destination a good two hours ago and had been waiting patiently ever since. They would had actually arrived there earlier had they not stopped by a nearby hotel and gotten a room. "You should head back to the hotel," Ranma suggested, jerking a thumb over his back toward a nearby building. "What about you?" she asked.  
"I don't need sleep," he said, "I'll just wait here,"  
Nene didn't bother to suggest that he observe from the window of the hotel room since their hotel room was located on the other side of the building, preventing them any clear view of the antique store across the street.  
The fact that Ranma would be, basically, sitting on a bench just outside the hotel building made her feel a great sense of safety. Sure, she wouldn't be within arm's length of him, but she would be damn close.  
"I'll stay out here longer," she said, "I'm just a bit tired, yes, but not dead tired. I feel bad going and getting some sleep while you just stay out here overnight,"  
"What's there to worry about?" he asked, waving a hand, "It's not like I'm gonna get hungry or cold or sleepy,"  
"Won't you get bored?" she asked, "We've been here for two hours and we haven't seen a single person enter the antique shop,"  
Ranma shook his head, "Bored? Not really. I'll be fine,"  
"Are you sure?" she asked.  
"I'll be fine,"

Nene stretched as she woke up the next morning.  
She had this flush on her cheeks as she quickly glanced over toward one side of her bed, expecting to see Ranma sleeping soundly there. She noticed that Ranma wasn't there, that she was totally alone in her hotel room.  
"What the hell's wrong with me?" she bonked her head in total embarrassment. She couldn't believe the kind of dream she had. It was the type of erotic dream that would even make a porn star blush.  
Maybe it was because she had been around Ranma constantly for so long and her practically non-existent sex-life made her mind think such things. Whatever the case, she was very surprised how her very technical mind could think such creative things.  
She took a minute to orient herself with her surroundings. Checking the digital alarm clock sitting on the small draw located next to the bed and was surprised to realize that it was eight in the morning.  
What really surprised her was that she usually slept in late, no matter how early she went to sleep. She was not a morning person and usually slept in until around eleven. Since she basically had her own hours for work back on her world, that made her used to sleeping away the entire morning most of the time.  
It suddenly dawned on Nene that Ranma was probably still sitting on the bench all night. She had slept for around nine hours meaning Ranma had been alone for nine hours.  
Nene took a very quick shower, which was around fifteen minutes. A fifteen minute shower was plenty quick for her. She was the type of person that usually took twenty minutes showers on average. And it wasn't because she wanted to make sure she was really clean but because she sometimes just zoned out in the shower and just enjoyed standing in front of the stream of warm water.  
When she was finished showering and had gotten dressed, she quickly rushed out of her room to be with Ranma.  
Nene was both surprised and relieved to see Ranma sitting right on the bench, right where she last saw him. His gaze was still on the antique shop and his body showed no signs of sleepiness. He looked every bit as alert now as before she left him.  
"Ranma," she said, approaching him.  
"G'morning," he said, "Have a nice sleep? Have any nice dreams?"  
Nene blushed, "Y-yeah, I guess,"  
She really wondered if Ranma knew what kind of dream she had. She wouldn't be surprised if he did because he did have the ability to read one's mind if he made eye contact long enough with a person. However, Ranma had said he would never do that because it wasn't right to do that since it was, in essence, an invasion of privacy.  
Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Why're you blushing? What, you have some hentai dream?"  
"N-no!" she said quickly, blushing even more, "Um, it's just that I'm not used to being up so early in the morning,"  
"You can go back to sleep if you want," he said, "There's no need for you to stay here with me if you're tired,"  
"No, it's all right," she sat down next to him, "I wanna stay and keep you company,"  
Ranma smiled warmly, "That's awfully nice of you,"  
"So, did anyone enter the antique shop yet?" she wondered aloud.  
Ranma shook his head, "Not a single person. That got me wondering on how that shop stays in business when it receives no customers. Unless that shop has antiques that sell for an insane amount of money and there is, say, at least one weekly transaction, there's no way a shop like that could stay in business,"  
"Maybe my alternate self is what's keeping the shop in business," Nene gave a slight smile.  
"Probably," Ranma said, "It's crossed my mind,"  
"It could be days or even weeks before she shows up," Nene said.  
Ranma shrugged, "Doesn't bother me much. It's not like I hafta be somewhere anytime soon,"  
"What about home?" Nene asked, "If we are here for weeks, I'm sure people will start to worry about us, if they aren't already aware that we're missing now,"  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah. Actually, when we go back, I'll have it where we get back just moments after we left. In a way, no matter how much time we spend here, no one will know we were gone,"  
"But how come people knew you were gone when you went back to the past of your own world?" she asked, "Y'know, when you wanted to prevent the Nerima Massacre,"  
"I used the nanban mirror," he said, "Time still moves forward even though we go to a different timeline. This time, I conjured a portal which is a much more powerful version of the nanban mirror. That's very different. Only people that can keep track of us would be someone like Urd,"  
Nene asked, "You think Urd might be dropping in on us?"  
She didn't really like the thought of Urd dropping in on them. Urd was a nice person and all, but if she showed up, it would most likely mean something significant.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nope. No one knows where we are. That is, not unless you prayed to her,"  
"Huh?"  
"If you pray, she'll hear you," he smirked, "Lots of people pray and ask for stuff, but then again, most of them never helped her out in the same way we have helped her. In a way, if you pray, she is very likely to hear you and respond,"  
"Wait, let me get this straight," Nene did a doubt take, "I can pray and Urd will respond?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. If you get hurt and are alone, you can pray to her and she will come and help you out. Pretty cool, huh? God is, literally, listening to you,"  
Nene had no idea what to say to that. The thought that having God on her side was both very reassuring and disturbing.  
"Pretty freaky, huh?" Ranma chuckled, "You should see how freaked out that has Shinji. Because he helped her out greatly back then, when I was possessed and all and tired to kill her, she is basically waiting to return the favor,"  
"Really?" Nene's eyes widened, "You're kidding me, right?"  
"Nope," he said, "Since Shinji doesn't really want anything, there's really nothing she can do for him, which kinda drives her nuts because she feels, at least somewhat, like her life is indebted to him,"  
Nene was stunned speechless.  
Ranma shrugged, "Anyway, it's nothing we need to worry about or dwell over. It's just something good to know, that Urd will come and help out, provided she isn't busy herself,"  
Nene remained silent as she took in such vital information.  
"Let's change the subject," he said, pointing, "So, do y'wanna get some food? There's a restaurant next to us. We can eat in there so long as we get a window seat and can watch the shop,"  
"I guess so, but then what?" she asked, "After we eat, we'll just go back to watching the shop?"  
He nodded.  
"What are we going to do when or if we bump into my alternate self?" she asked.  
"We'll just ask her some questions and find out what the deal is with her being Net-Master and such," he said, "I didn't really think things through. But then again, I never really think things through,"  
"I noticed," she giggled. Ranma was definitely the type of person that did everything on the fly.  
"I kinda wish she'd show up soon," Ranma sighed a bit, "As patient as I can be, I'd rather do something else instead of just waiting around. Time doesn't really matter much to me, but even from my point of view, it feels like I'm just wasting time,"  
Nene thought for a moment for a way to solve that problem. It was clear to her that Ranma didn't want to continue to stake out the shop, but there was really no other alternative. They needed to come in contact with the other version of her, to find out what the heck was going on.  
"Oh, I got an idea!" she said.  
"What?" he asked.  
"Just wait here for a moment,"

Nene entered the electronics store.  
She had spotted the store the other day while she was walking with Ranma but thought nothing of it until now. She was a bit out of breath, having jogged the two blocks distance from where Ranma was to the store.  
"Man, I'm really out of shape," she sighed, needing a minute to catch her breath. She didn't even run either.  
The patrons of the small electronics store gave her a funny look. This was because they were not used to seeing someone that looked so human. Although she looked completely human, most people were skeptic since seeing complete humans was extremely rare. Perhaps she was some special Android looked remarkably human. Androids were complete robots and were different from cyborgs. Cyborgs were part human and part machine. Androids were complete machines. Because cyborgs liked to flaunt their cybernetic implants, it was easy to spot on. Androids didn't have the human need to show off so they were usually built looking completely human.  
It must be because they're not used to humans, Nene said, feeling a bit singled out.  
Nene tried to ignore the stares as she went about searching around the store for what the necessary items she needed.  
"Are you looking for something?" a man asked. Aside from his human head, he had a completely cybernetic body.  
Nene looked at him for a moment and noticed that he was the manager of the store. The tag on his shirt said so.  
"Yeah, I'm looking for some kinda motion sensor," she said, "As well as a small transmitter and receiver. I wanna make a sensor that detects movement and will relay a small signal to a receiver. Think of it as a motion sensor alarm,"  
The man said, "Ah, we have those. What, is your master worried about intruders on his property?"  
"My master?" Nene asked, a bit confused.  
"Yes, your owner," the man said.  
"No one owns me," Nene said. Something then clicked in her head, "I'm not an android. I'm completely human,"  
"Y-you're completely human?" the man flushed in embarrassment, "Oh, I'm so sorry. It's just that-"  
"I know, it's so rare spotting one that most people don't even believe it when they do," Nene gave a shy smile. Even though it bothers her slightly about being stared at, she found herself getting used to the odd looks. Most of her stared at her in curiosity, which she didn't mind.  
"We have exactly what you're looking for," the man quickly said, hoping to change the subject to avoid farther embarrassment of himself.  
Nene followed the man. Before long she had all the necessary items.  
"If you want, it might be easier to just by the sensor that has the built in transmitter and receiver," the man stated, "It could save you the trouble of building it yourself,"  
Nene shook her head, "It's no problem. This world's electronics is similar to my own world so it'll be no problem in me assembling it by myself,"  
"Huh?" the man was confused at the comment.  
"Nevermind," she gave a slight laugh.  
Nene paid for the items with the money Ranma stole from the bank. As she paid, she decided it couldn't hurt to ask something.  
"Do you know about that antique shop two blocks from here?" she asked.  
The man nodded, "Yeah. I've never been in there before, but I know of it,"  
"Just curious, have you ever seen anyone go in?" she asked.  
The man thought for a moment, scratching his chin, "Hm, lettme think. Actually, yeah, I did see someone go in,"  
"Really?" Nene was eager to hear more. "Yeah," the man nodded, "I was on my way to work when I saw a young looking girl enter the store,"  
"What's she look like?" she asked, "Um, I ask this because, um, I know my friend likes antique stuff and I haven't seen her in a long time. That might be her,"  
The man thought for a moment, "Lettme see if I can recall. It was a while ago. She was short, around your height,"  
"Um, I prefer to be called petite," Nene gave a shy smile. Sure, she was small, but petite at least sounded better.  
"Right, petite," the man smile, "She had short blond hair. I didn't get a good look at her so I really dunno what she looked like. What, does that fit your friend's description?"  
"Short blond hair, huh?" Nene said, "Um, yeah. She dyes her hair so there might be a chance that that's her,"  
"Well, good luck finding her," the man said.  
"On more question, do you know when you last saw her?" she asked.  
"Yeah, I walk by that store every day on my way here to work. The last time I saw her was around two years ago," the man answered.  
"T-two years ago? Oh man," she sighed.  
"Something the matter?" he asked.  
"Nevermind,"

"Ranma,"  
Ranma, still sitting on the bench, looked up at Nene as she approached him. He noticed she was carrying a small bag.  
"What's with the bag?" he asked, "Where'd you go?"  
Nene smiled as she sat down next to him and emptied out the contents of the bag onto the bench. Ranma looked at the half dozen pieces of items in confusion. He picked a small rectangular box up and looked at it for a moment.  
"What are all of these things?" he asked. He had no idea what they were or what they were for. He wasn't all that good with electronics.  
"They're parts for making a radio motion sensor," Nene said, "All I have to do is put them together correctly,"  
"I still don't get it," he scratched his head.  
"You said you were getting bored just waiting for something to happen," she answered happily, "To help solve that problem, I came up with the idea to make a radio motion sensor. Since no one visits that store really, we can put a motion sensor by the door. That way, if anyone trips that sensor, a signal will be sent to this receiver I got and tell us some someone entered it,"  
"Really?" Ranma was surprised.  
Nene nodded, "Yeah. That way, we don't need to hang around here all the time. We can do whatever we want, so long as we are close by to respond and get her in no time," "W-wow, that's great!" Ranma smiled happily, "That's a great idea. Doing something like that never even crossed my mind. That's brilliant,"  
Nene smiled happily, blushing slightly, "Thanks. Also, I think there's a chance that the alternate version of myself does visit this shop,"  
"Really? How do you know?" he asked.  
"From out of the blue, I asked a guy who works nearby if he ever sees anyone enter the antique store," she said, "I figure since the guy worked nearby, there was a chance he might see her enter from time to time while on his way to work. I noticed the guy was a manager so I figured he worked at that store for a while. Lo and behold, he actually did remember spotting someone enter.  
"Wow, and what else did he say?" Ranma was very impressed at Nene's deductive skills. For a girl that was usually quiet, her mind worked brilliantly.  
"Just curious, you said there's some kind of alternate version of myself that you are aware of that is very much like me, even though she looks completely different," she said, "Can you describe her?"  
"I never met her but I did observe that world and spot her from time to time," he said, "She's petite, around your height. She has short blond hair. I never got a close look to her, but I knew that she was the Nene of that alternate world,"  
"Hm, it seems like there's a chance that that particular version of her exist on this world,"  
Motoko rubbed at her chin, "Where the hell could they be? I want to talk to them,"  
"What, you've finally given up and decided to ask the enemy for help?" Bateau smirked.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes toward the large man, "No. As much as I hate to admit, Nene's some kind of hacking wizard. I want to find her to use her to gather more information about us,"  
"How's that any different than asking for help?" Bateau asked, "Sounds to me like exactly that,"  
"She's still the enemy," Motoko said, "Ranma, too. At the moment, it seems like trying to figure out the predicament we're in takes a much higher priority than apprehending Net-Master,"  
"You should just call her Nene," Bateau suggested, "Net-Master was the name we gave her. Now that we know this Net-Master actually has a real name, we should call her Nene,"  
"Fine," Motoko seemed annoyed at trivial things such as that, "Anyway, we need to find Nene to interrogate her about what she knows. I wouldn't be surprised if can find out much more about us than we can. That way, if we know the extent of the predicament we're in, we can at least figure out a plan and course of action on how to deal with such a situation,"  
"Man, where could they possibly be?" she asked herself, "It's clear that they are not actively avoiding us. Ranma doesn't even view us as a threat so they're just wandering around like some kind of tourists," "For all we know, there could be a connection to the locations they go to," Bateau suggested, "Maybe there are connections between those restaurants they go to,"  
"Like what?" Motoko asked, We did a search on all those restaurants. The only connection they have is that they serve eggs and sausages and we remember seeing Ranma eating that when we were watching him,"  
Bateau said, "Hm, not much to go on, but it's still something,"  
"There seems to be no real connection," Motoko said, "As much as I try to figure their pattern, the more confusing it gets. I truly believe that they're just wandering around. Heck, it hasn't even escaped my mind that Nene doesn't know she's Net-Master,"  
"What?" Bateau asked.  
"Ranma's always with her," Motoko said, "I asked him where Net-Master was and he truly had no idea what I was talking about. Even though he could pretend not to know what I was talking about, I noticed that his body posture gave indication that he was speaking the truth,"  
"I guess him being completely human does give us advantages," Bateau commented, "His body reacts in a human manner which we can read,"  
"We don't even know if he's human so let's not get into that," Motoko said, "I saw wings grow from his back, which completely defies even my sense of logic because there is no way I could not detect such a cybernetic implant. Heck, my internal sensors indicate that he is neither cyborg nor human,"  
"Man, seems like this is one heck of a mystery," Bateau chuckled, trying to keep the situation light. He tended to joke a bit, but never joked too much.  
"Nene's completely human," Motoko said, "That's the only thing we can go on. Therefore, she needs human needs, like food and water and sleep,"  
"What, you think we should stake out all the local restaurants and hotels?" Bateau was shocked.  
"It's something to go on," Motoko stated.  
Bateau sighed, "This is no easy task, y'know,"  
"Can you think of something else? I'm open to suggestions," Motoko asked.  
"Unfortunately, no,"

Ranma watched as Nene went about assembling a dozen parts together into a single device. Before he knew it, he had watched Nene make a fully functional motion detector capable of transmitting a simple radio wave to a receiver when set off. "Wow," Ranma was genuinely impressed. He had a natural knack for mechanical devices and creating mechanical devices out of nothing, but electronic devices was totally different for him. This was because his mind worked better in figuring out moving parts and how they were interconnected. With electronic devices, there were no moving parts which made it hard for him to understand. Nene blushed as she held her finished product up for Ranma to inspect. It was just a small cube-like device with sides that were probably around an inch big.  
"Try and be careful," she said, "I kind of put it together in a hurt so there might be some somewhat loose parts within. If you shake it too much, the parts might come loose,"  
"How'd you do that?" he asked, "I never knew you knew how to build stuff. This is awesome,"  
Nene blushed in embarrassment. She was definitely unused to be complimented, especially from someone like Ranma. It was quite fulfilling hearing compliments from a guy who have thanklessly saved worlds. "It's one of my hobbies," she said, "I like building trinkets. Something like this is one of them. The stuff I really like working on is antique clocks. However, something like this isn't much different,"  
Ranma handed back the device, "That's an awesome hobby and definitely comes in handy in a time like this,"  
"Thanks," she smiled happily.  
Ranma watched as Nene crossed the street and placed the device right by the entrance door to the antique shop. She slipped in it a small crack in the wall right near the bottom of the door. Because it was so small, no one would detect it.  
"Done," Nene smiled, producing a small hand-sized device from her pockets, "This is our receiver. If anything trips off that motion sensor, like the door opening, this receiver will make a beeping noise,"  
"What about people that walk by?" he asked, "If it's a motion sensor, wouldn't it detect people walking right by the store but not actually go in?"  
Nene shook her head, "I have that covered. It's angled in a way that it will only detect the motion of the entrance door opening. And since my alternate self will need to open the door to enter, and practically no one goes into the shop, we might find her before long,"  
"What about if she uses some back door?" Ranma didn't like being a realist, "Most shops have a backdoor,"  
"I checked before," she said, "It's barred and looks like it hasn't been used in years. The entrance door is the only one we need to look out for. However, if you're uncomfortable with that, I can always make a second motion sensor and put it in front of that backdoor as well,"  
Ranma smiled as she shook his head, "Nah. One'll be good enough. I trust your judgment. Heck, since we got here, your judgment's been perfect so far,"  
"T-thanks," she said. She felt almost guilty, as if she was receiving too much attention.  
"Well, now that we don't hafta worry about standing watch over the antique shop, let's go eat," Ranma grinned, "I can't wait to eat,"  
"But I thought you don't really need to eat," she commented.  
"I don't. But it doesn't mean I can't enjoy eating,"  
'You won't believe this, but I actually found them,' Bateau said, not believing his eyes. He was standing on the roof of, unbeknownst to him, the same building Ranma and Nene was watching. He had spotted Ranma and immediately used his optic-cam to prevent himself from being spotted.  
He was actually on his way to check out a hotel located nearby when he spotted Ranma through the window of a restaurant. He had been to five hotels, searching for Ranma and Nene. He had a funny feeling that Ranma or Nene most likely used their own names when they stayed at a hotel, what with the clear fact that Ranma and Nene seemed completely unbothered by the fact that they're being chased all this time. He figured that if he found their names in a hotel log, it at least helped him determine where the two of them were in this huge city. It also made him know that they were still within the city.  
'You found them?' came Motoko's surprised voice.  
'Yeah, I see him and Nene sitting in a restaurant eating,' he said, also relaying his exact coordinates so that Motoko can zero in on his location within the city. It would allow her to reach him much quicker since she would not be heading his way.  
'Is it me or do these two always eat?' Motoko commented.  
'I never knew complete humans needed to eat that much,' Bateau commented, 'They must eat around six times a day or so. How does one go on living like that, wasting so much time on eating?'  
'Well, it seems like that's their Achilles heal, their need to eat,' Motoko said, 'Anyway, I'm on my way. I'll be there in around ten minutes. Just keep yourself unseen and follow them,'  
'Gotcha,' he said. Even though he was using his optic-cam, which made him virtually invisible to the human eyes, he didn't take any chances and ducked low, only allowing his head to be slightly exposed so he could observe.

Inside the restaurant, Ranma was enjoying his meal.  
"I know that eggs and sausages are your favorite foods, but you should at least get something different from time to time," Nene commented.  
Ranma paused for a moment, "How'd you know that, that sausages and eggs are my favorite foods?"  
"I notice you eat that all the time," she stated, "Naturally, one would assume they're your favorites since it would meant there's something wrong if you constantly eat stuff you hate,"  
Ranma smiled, "I guess you have a point. I'm just a bit surprised you noticed that about me. I don't think any one else knows that, not even Akane, and she usually cooks breakfast,"  
He was sure Asuka didn't know that, despite him actually having made a comment about them being his favorites a long long time ago. He had mentioned that one day when he was on the world where Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, Shinji, and Rei were from. He had been in Misato's apartment and Asuka had come home from school early when he mentioned that.  
"Maybe I'll eat something different the next time around," Ranma suggested.  
"That's a good idea," she said. Ranma stopped eating as he looked out the window toward the rooftop of antique store.  
"What's the matter?" she asked, wondering if Ranma saw someone enter the shop. That was funny because the receiver made no noise, which indicated otherwise.  
"We have company," he said, jerking a thumb, "There's something virtually invisible watching us from the roof of that building,"  
Nene looked out the window, "Something's watching us?"  
"Yeah," he said, "It's not like what I sensed before. It's much smaller,"  
"Ah, whatever's watching us must be using that optic-cam technology I read about," Nene thought for a moment, "Smaller? Hm, the thing you sense were those Tachikoma things. If it's smaller, then perhaps it's Motoko or Bateau,"  
"Oh yeah," Ranma said, "You said that they have some kind of built-in optic cam,"  
"Hm, that may very well be," she said.  
Ranma grinned.  
"W-what are you going to do?" Nene gulped, not liking that mischievious look he was giving.  
"I'm gonna go mess with whoever's watching us,"

Bateau couldn't help but feel a sense of battle stress as he silently watched Ranma emerge from the restaurant. Nene remained inside, most likely to be protected with whatever was going to happen.  
"Hey!" Ranma shouted out in Bateau's general direction.  
Bateau did nothing. He knew he was completely unseen. Optic-cam was perfect technology. He could stand right next to someone and would not be seen. There was no way Ranma could detect him. "I know you're there," Ranma said, looking directly at Bateau.  
This definitely made him think twice about his optic-cam's effectiveness. "Which one of you is it?" Ranma asked, "The big dude that lost to me before he even had a chance to put up a fight, or the girl that lost to me countless times?"  
Bateau gritted his teeth. This was definitely a unique situation. He truly believed that he was perfectly invisible to the human eye, but Ranma's actions indicated that it didn't matter. "I dunno if you know this or not," Ranma said, "But you and your partner seemed to be in some deep shit. I suggest you stop chasing after us and worry about that,"  
Bateau remained silent. His training taught him not to give away his position. For all he knew, Ranma could be saying all that as a ruse to lure him into doing something and revealing himself. It was similar to saying 'I found you!' in a game of hide-and-seek as a bluff call to lure the observer into really believing he had been spotted when it was just a simply ruse.  
"I must say, you really are invisible," Ranma said, "That optic-cam stuff you use is really good, but not good enough. I may not be able to see you, but I can sense you. I know you're there,"  
It kind of bothered Ranma that he couldn't tell if it was Motoko or Bateau. All he could sense of a minute human presence from Bateau's location. This was because only Motoko's and Bateau's brain and spine were human and he was detecting that but was unable to distinguish whose.  
"Are you gonna just stand there and watch us?" Ranma asked.  
Ranma waited for an answer before finding it a waste of time. It was obvious both Motoko and Bateau were skilled enough that they would not reveal their location, truly believing that they were completely hidden.  
He was tempted to just jump up to the rooftop to spook the hell out of his observer to make him or her reveal their identity, but he didn't want to wander too far away from Nene. "Bah," Ranma seemed to lose interest, "If you just stay there and leave us alone, then I guess I'll leave you alone,"  
Bateau found himself very confused as he watched Ranma just walk right back into the restaurant. What really surprised him was that rather than just try and leave with Nene, Ranma went right back to eating.  
Bateau fumed as he realized Ranma seemed to be openly mocking him, but purposely showing no signs of worry, like he was some kind of harmless insect.  
"God, what I wouldn't do for Motoko's Custom Rifle right now?"  
Motoko, wearing optic-cam, approached Bateau from behind on the rooftop.  
She arrived there around five minutes after Ranma had emerged from the restaurant, only to head back in shortly afterwards.  
"They're still eating?" she was surprised, "They waste so much time eating,"  
"Well, they were only in there for around thirty minutes," he said, "That doesn't seem to be the problem,"  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"I seriously believe that optic-cam doesn't work on them," he said, "I really think they can detect us even while we're wearing optic-cam,"  
"Are you sure?" she was very skeptic. Even she couldn't detect optic-cam and she had the best eyes technology had to offer.  
Bateau said, "I really think so. He came out from the restaurant a short while ago and talked directly toward me as I watched. I didn't move or give off my location, but I swear, it seems like he truly knew I was there,"  
"What did he say?" she asked.  
"He mentioned about what predicament we're in," he answered, "Therefore, not only could he detect optic-cam, but he could actually detect who's using it. Actually, correction, he seemed aware that it was one of us, but I don't think he knew which one,"  
"Hm, so, optic-cam masks our identities," Motoko noted, "However, even if he can detect optic-cam, I don't know how that helps,"  
Bateau said, "Do we have any information on this guy? This guy has wings, can detect optic-cam. What the heck can he not do? Next thing we know, we find out he's God visiting world on vacation,"  
"What's with you thinking he some kind of God?" Motoko said, "This is the second time you made that joke. What you actually believe he is God?"  
Bateau chuckled, "Nah, I don't believe that, but you have to admit that it does help explain away a lot of the stuff he's capable of doing,"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes. She couldn't help but think of a comment Ranma made toward her that stuck in her mind.  
"Maybe the nanomachines have stopped working and you're going senile,"

new stuff 3/12

Ranma exited the restaurant when he sensed that there were now two people watching him. This led him to realize that both Bateau and Motoko were now observing him.  
Nene was right by his side, very close. As nervous as she felt about stepping out into unknown danger, she also felt a sense of safety from knowing that Ranma was so near.  
"If you're really worried, let's just take off," he said, "I can use my wings and they won't be able to catch us,"  
Nene shook her head, "No. We should talk to them. It's obvious that they won't start chasing us until we get things cleared up. Also, now would be a good time to tell them of what's going to happen to them,"  
Ranma said, "All right,"  
He looked up toward the rooftop of the antique shop where Motoko and Bateau were observing them patiently. He knew they were there even though he couldn't see them.  
Nene gave a yelp of surprise as he picked her up in his arms.  
"W-what are you doing?" she said, quickly, perhaps instinctively wrapping her arms around Ranma's neck.  
"I'm gonna approach 'em like ya want me to," he said, "However, I'm not gonna leave you down here where you could be in danger. I'm gonna bring you along so you'll be nearby so I can keep ya safe if they should ever try anything,"  
"Oh," she blushed.  
Before she could say anything else, Ranma leapt up into the air, his wings shooting out from his back. With a single flap of his wings, he flew up to the top of the rooftop. Because there were no pedestrians nearby when he did that, no one but Motoko and Bateau had seen what had happened. When he landed, Ranma's wings retracted, disappearing back into his back.  
Motoko and Bateau stood very still, in a state of shock at what they had seen as Ranma hovered down on to the rooftop where they were standing, a short distance away.  
Ranma placed Nene down but made sure that he was standing in front of her.  
"I know you're there," Ranma said in their general direction, "No need to stand still,"  
'What do we do?' Bateau asked. It was Motoko's call. He would follow her lead. Because he was communicating with Motoko via hardwired Internet, their thoughts would go unheard by all except each other.  
'Just standby,' Motoko said, her hands slowly inching toward her gun.  
Ranma, remember what Nene had mentioned, bent down and picked up a small rock. He made sure he made his movements were slow and deliberate, so that Motoko and Bateau would not jump to conclusions.  
"Optic-cam is only effective so long as there is no interference, like something touching it while it's active," Ranma said, "I'm gonna gently throw this rock in your general direction. If you move, then I'll know you're there. If you don't move, then the rock will hit you, and I will know that you're there,"  
Motoko turned off her optic-cam, revealing herself. Ranma found himself a bit surprised at what he was looking at. Motoko was stark naked. This was because optic-cam was actually integrated into her skin. If she wore clothes, people would be able to see her because she would look like a pair of moving clothes.  
"Whoa," Ranma whistled, "What a pleasant surprise,"  
"Ranma!" Nene said when she realized Ranma was staring.  
Motoko seemed not one bit embarrassed about being completely naked. She had nothing to be embarrassed about. Even though she had a completely cybernetic body, she probably had the most beautiful sculpted female body ever created. Her body basically looked like that of the ideal female body, perfectly proportioned in every sense of the word.  
Ranma didn't seem to mind one bit at all that she was naked. He showed no signs of embarrassment at seeing the female form in all its naked glory.  
"Bateau, you can reveal yourself," Motoko turned toward her partner.  
"No!" Ranma quickly said. His loud voice startled Motoko.  
"What?" she asked, reaching for her gun. She wasn't completely naked. She had a small holster for her gun strapped around her right leg. It was a special holster that had used optic-cam.  
"If your partner's naked like you, have him stay invisible," Ranma stated, "I ain't down with seeing a dude naked,"  
Bateau turned off his optic-cam. Ranma turned his gaze away briefly, not wanting to see things that would haunt him for weeks.  
When Ranma cast Bateau a cautious glance, he realized that Bateau was fully clothed.  
"Oh, you're wearing clothes," Ranma sighed in relief, "Good,"  
Bateau narrowed his eyes. He found himself really disliking Ranma. As much as he had to give Ranma respect for being such a formidable opponent, he did not like him one bit. He was pretty sure Motoko hated him even more.  
Motoko walked over toward one corner of the rooftop where he clothes were and picked them up, proceeding to put them on. She noticed Ranma seemed rather transfixed on watching her as she did so. Men, they're all alike, Motoko thought in annoyance. It's just a naked female body. No need to look at it like it's some long drink of water.  
"Hey, how come Bateau isn't naked?" Ranma asked, "Not that I mind. Actually, I definitely don't mind. I definitely like the fact that he's clothed,"  
"You really annoy me, you know that?" Bateau said coldly.  
"Yeah, but can YOU kick MY ass?" Ranma retorted with a smirk.  
"Fucking asshole," Bateau's hands clenched.  
"Yeah, but can YOU kick MY ass?" Ranma asked again, still grinning, "We can go back and forth with this all day, but I'll always win because, well, can YOU kick MY ass?"  
"Ranma," Nene said, tugging at the back of his shirt, "That's enough," "Fine," Ranma stopped smirking and simply assumed a casual stance.  
It seems like Nene has come kind of control over Ranma, Motoko noted, knowing that that could come in handy. "Bateau's optic-cam is integrated with his jacket and pants," Nene commented, remembering what she read while Ranma was checking out books, "Motoko usually does undercover work, so she sometimes needs to wear clothes suitable to her undercover work. Bateau never does that so there's no need for him to ever change outfits,"  
"Well, it seems like Nene knows everything there is about us," Motoko commented, giving her a cold glare.  
"Um, I know a bit but not everything," Nene said nervously, almost cowering under that stare.  
The girl is timid, Motoko noted. For a girl capable of basically halting the world, she sure acts much differently than her Net-persona gives off.  
"I'm only doing this to get you guys off my back," Ranma said, "Frankly, you guys chasing us is getting annoying and it's about time I do something about it,"  
Motoko and Bateau assumed a cautious stance, as if expecting Ranma to suddenly do something.  
Ranma regarded their change in posture for a moment before he broke out in laughter, "You misunderstood me. What I meant by 'it's about time I do something about it', I meant by sitting down and talking to you and getting things straightened out,"  
Motoko and Bateau didn't seem to believe him all that much.  
"First off," Ranma said, "If I WANTED to get ridda ya, I could've done that a LONG time ago. But I'm not that kinda person. I'll never intentionally hurt someone unless there's a good reason,"  
"But you are the type of person that would rob a bank," Motoko stated.  
"Yeah, but I never hurt anyone," Ranma stated, as if that made it any better. From his point of view, it made a load of difference.  
Motoko was not one bit impressed. "Look, let's have ourselves a truce," Ranma said, "Let's let bygones be bygones,"  
Motoko shook her head, "I can't do that. Nene is an internationally wanted cyber-criminal. You're in accomplice with her making the two of you our enemy. I'm not going to have any form of truce with the enemy,"  
"M-me? An i-international cyber criminal?" Nene's eyes widened, "Under what charges?"  
The shock looked so genuine that it even fooled Motoko and Bateau momentarily. "Yes," she said, "Under the charges like Government-tampering, Economy-  
degradation, International-Database-Corruption, to name a few,"  
"What kinda charges are those?" she said, "I've never heard of such charges,"  
"Keep in mind we are on a different world, afterall," Ranma gave her a nudge, "For all we know, maybe jaywalking's a crime in this world,"  
Nene did not seem one bit amused at the attempted joke. Whatever charges she was being wanted for, they sounded extremely serious with extreme consequences.  
"You're Net-Master, and we have to arrest you," Motoko stated flatly.  
"Me? Net-Master?" Nene gasped in absolute shock.  
"Whoa, you're Net-Master? You could've fooled me," Ranma said. "Ranma! This is no time for jokes," Nene said. Ranma said, "She's not Net-Master,"  
"She is," Motoko said vehemently.  
"Damn, you're so wrong that the person that invented that word is laughing at you right now," Ranma said, "She's not whoever this Net-Master person is,"  
Motoko showed no signs of believing his words.  
"You don't believe me, do you?" he asked.  
"Not one bit," she said.  
"How can Nene possibly be Net-Master when we are actually looking for that person as well?" Ranma asked, "Why don't you try and explain that with your super deductive police-logic of your?"  
Motoko asked, "What? Did you say you're looking for Net-Master?"  
Nene said, "Yes. I'm not this Net-Master person you're looking for. I don't really know how you mistaken me for this person,"  
"Net-Master leaves behind a specific tag," Motoko said, "Through some careful investigation, we've found out that you leave behind that same tag,"  
Nene scratched her head, "Tag? Wait, you mean that stuff I write in 'l33t'?"  
"l33t?" Motoko repeated. What was funny was that no one really knew what that sounded like since it was meant only for writing and not speaking. "If you refer to my tag, yes, that's mine," Nene said, "But whatever this tag is that Net-Master leaves behind, it isn't me that's writing it,"  
"It doesn't matter," Motoko responded, "Too much evidence points toward you being her and you are to be arrested under the charges that you are Net-Master,"  
Ranma stepped forward, "You'll be doing none of that,"  
Nene tugged at the back of Ranma's shirt as she gulped, "No. Hold up,"  
"What is it?" he asked, turning toward her.  
"Um, I can handle this," she said, nervous but somewhat confident as well.  
This was clearly going to be a verbal battle. Although physically weak, Nene was not mentally weak. If it was a battle of wits, she was ready for the challenge.  
"What is your evidence that I am her?" Nene asked, trying to sound firm. She didn't know if she had certain rights like she had in her world, but she had to assume that she had some form of rights. She knew police procedures of her world, and she had a funny feeling police procedures of this world wasn't much different.  
"Eye witnesses saw you and Ranma in front of a computer when you infiltrated my brain," Motoko answered, ready for verbal battle, "The tag you left behind on my brain is that of Net-Master,"  
"W-what?" Nene was shocked at what she heard, "I infiltrated your brain?"  
"Yes," she said, smirking, "If you want to see the logs, I can show you if you come down with me to the station. The time of when the witnesses saw you and the time you infiltrated my mind matches,"  
Nene had to take a minute to concentrate. Never had it crossed her mind that the 'site' she thought she was hacking was Motoko's mind. But then again, that could probably explain why the 'site' seemed to hold rather personal information about her.  
"Did the witness see me input that 'tag'?" Nene asked, knowing that no one saw her.  
Motoko paused for a moment, "Well, no, but-"  
"So you're assuming that I was the one that inputted that tag, am I right?" she said.  
"Yes," she said.  
Nene shook her head, "You're not allowed to assume anything. It's against protocol. What proof do you have that I specifically inputted that tag?"  
Motoko was silent for a moment as she tried to gather her thoughts. She had to admit that this girl knew something about police procedures. It made her wonder if Nene's comment about being a policewoman was true when they had first met.  
"Surveillance cameras within the coffee shop shows you heading into the back of the shop at the time when that crime occurred," Motoko answered.  
"But did it show me in front of the computer inputting it?" she asked.  
Motoko gritted her teeth, "No,"  
"What kinda crime is the writing of that 'tag'?" Nene asked.  
"Ghost-graffiti," Motoko answered.  
"How much trouble can on get in for that?" Nene asked.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes, wondering where Nene was getting at, "It's a minor offense. Most people usually get off with a fine,"  
"So, if you bust me for doing something like that, then I'll only get in trouble for that," Nene said.  
Motoko shook her head, "No. The tag connects you to Net-Master and all the crimes Net-Master had committed,"  
"Do you have proof?" Nene asked, "Do you have proof showing that that 'tag' left behind by her is indeed mine?"  
Motoko said, "No,"  
"Do you have proof linking me to the times when the 'tags' were written by Net-Master?" Nene asked.  
"No," Motoko found herself getting frustrated. She had to admit that the girl was indeed very smart and knew quite a bit about law.  
"So, you're going on the assumption that I wrote those 'tags' simply because they're exactly alike the one from the one you assumed I wrote in the coffee shop?" she asked.  
Motoko was silent.  
"You're making an assumption on an assumption," Nene said, "That's not allowed in your line of work, am I right?"  
Ranma smiled toward Nene. He couldn't help but have this great respect for her. Nene was showing a side to herself that he had never seen before. He always figured Nene was the timid and quiet type. This Nene seemed brilliant and confrontational, a totally different person.  
"Do you have proof that I wrote those other 'tags', the ones before the coffee shop one?" Nene asked.  
"No," Motoko actually found herself losing the verbal battle.  
"So, under what grounds are you arresting me?" she asked, "It's obvious that you can not arrest me under the 'assumption' that I am Net-Master. You have no proof. Also, do you have a motif? Surely, you have a motif on why I wrote that 'tag', provided I was the one that actually wrote that tag while in the coffee shop, which, on the record, I'm stating as having not done,"  
"The motif is that you wanted to threaten me, to let supposedly frighten me from my chase after you," Motoko said.  
"That's an assumption on your part," Nene said, "What proof that it was a threat?"  
"You were in my goddamn mind!" Motoko snapped, losing her cool, "I know it was you,"  
Nene took a timid step back, a bit frightened at the shouting Motoko. Motoko looked really angry and she didn't like the thought of someone really angry at her. She never made people angry.  
"D-do you have proof that it was me that hacked into your mind?" Nene asked after she managed to compose herself.  
"Fuck, no, I don't," Motoko said, gritting her teeth.  
"Was anything like that of a threat done during the time when your mind was infiltrated?" Nene asked.  
"No," Motoko said after a long pause. All that had happened was that Motoko's mind was probed. "So how was it considered a threat?" Nene asked, "Provided, I actually was the one that did infiltrate you. It seems like you assumed it was a threat, even though nothing threatening was done. What proof do you have that it was a threat?"  
Motoko was silent.  
"Damn, Nene, you're kicking her ass," Ranma commented, giving Nene a nudge, "This is soooo much cooler than fighting. Verbal fights are far more interesting,"  
Motoko glared toward Ranma.  
"We can arrest you for robbery," Bateau comment, recalling Motoko mentioning that incident when she bumped into Nene when she was sitting on a bench near a bank.  
Motoko smirked, "Yes, as a matter of fact, we can. And Nene, we can take you in as being an accomplice,"  
"B-but I wasn't in the bank when it happened," Nene said nervously. She realized that Motoko had found the loophole in Nene's argument. Since Motoko couldn't bring her in under the charges that she was Net-Master, she could bring in Ranma for robbery and her as an accomplice.  
Ranma shook his head, "Uh uh. I don't think so,"  
"What makes you say that?" Motoko said, "I clearly saw you coming out of the bank when it was robbed,"  
"What proof do you have that it was me?" Ranma asked, seeing if he could do verbal battle as well. He knew he wouldn't be as good as Nene, but he could probably hold his own, provided conditions were perfect.  
"I saw you!" Motoko said, "It's good enough reason,"  
"Do I fit the description of the bank robber?" Ranma asked.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes for a moment. She then turned toward Bateau.  
"I'm already on it," Bateau said, grinning happily, "I've already begun scanning on the investigation of the robbery,"  
"Man, wouldn't it be a shame if no one saw the bank robber?" Ranma grinned. He knew he was in the clear. No one saw him and he left behind no clues that he had been there robbing them.  
Bateau's face suddenly sobered, "N-nothing. No one knows identity of person who robbed them. They don't even know the sex of the perpetrator. They have no leads whatsoever. Cameras didn't even pick up anything,"  
Ranma grinned, "Hm, looks like I just happened to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The robbery probably took place at the very moment when I left the bank,"  
"It doesn't matter," Motoko said, "I'm an eyewitness. I saw you rob the bank,"  
"No you didn't," Ranma said, "You only saw me come out. You never saw me do anything. You're just assuming I did,"  
Motoko shrugged, "Fine, whatever. I'll just bring you in under the suspicion that of having committed robbery based on the amount of money you're carrying,"  
Ranma made a movement with his hands so fast that no one noticed.  
"What money? I ain't got no money," Ranma reached into his pockets and pulled them out, "Look, no money,"  
"What the?" Bateau checked his own pockets. He suddenly found his jacket heavy. Checking them, he found them filled with 'credits' this world's currency, "What the hell? Where did all this come from?"  
Ranma grinned.  
Motoko, even though she didn't see it happen, knew Ranma somehow dumped the money in his pockets and into Bateau's pockets.  
Ranma had done stuff like that before. The last time he did that was getting rid of the nanban mirror Asuka had been looking for a long time ago. When he had the nanban mirror in his pocket, and Asuka knew that he had it, he quickly got rid of it by throwing it away and into someone else's pockets.  
"I saw you empty your pockets," she smirked, lying.  
"Um, I contest it," Nene interrupted, "Ranma made no such movements. It'll be my word against yours,"  
"Okay, but it doesn't bother me," Motoko said, "The word of a police officer outweighs the word of a citizen,"  
"Not if the officer is corrupt," Nene said, "Um, I'm accusing you of planting evidence. Your motif is your animosity toward us and wanting us arrested,"  
"You're merely 'assuming' that," Motoko smirked, using those words against Nene.  
Nene lifted her shirt, "No. Bateau, your partner, did this to me. How will you explain away your attempted murder of me? You are his commanding officer. For all we know, you gave him the order to off me as a way of scaring Ranma,"  
"What? A-attempted murder? I was trying no such thing!" Bateau shouted, shocked.  
"Y-you're assuming such things, you have no proof," Motoko said, shocked at Nene's wit.  
"No I'm not," Nene said, quickly thinking on her feet, "I'm completely human. These marks indicate police brutality. Police will never show brutality unless they have some personal reason to do so, and you know it,"  
Motoko was silent.  
"I'm sure these scrapes and cuts matches that of an arm of a Tachikoma," Nene stated, "It would be a shame if you were investigates as some kind of rouge police officer with a personal issue against Ranma and took it out on my by giving Bateau the order to rough me up,"  
Motoko was silent once again, shocked at the audacity of the young looking girl. Deep down inside, she couldn't help but feel a sense of respect for the girl and her tactics. She had to admit that Nene's mind was definitely keeping her on her toes.  
"Nice save," Ranma smirked.  
Nene gave a slight smile, "Thanks,"  
"Ranma matches the description of a suspected carjacker," Motoko lied, "I can arrest him that way and bring you in as an accomplice,"  
"What proof?" Nene asked, "We are both humans. Even if you do scan filed carjackings, I'm sure no one is human. We are to rare to go unnoticed,"  
"Wow, that's good," Ranma said, "Everyone here flaunts their cybernetic implants, so there's no way someone can not notice that we have no cybernetic implants,"  
Motoko gritted her teeth. "Besides," Nene said, "You work for Section-9. You fight cyber-crime. It's not in your jurisdiction to arrest us for crimes such as that. Even if we did do something like that, you need to leave it up to the local police to apprehend us. Heck, now that I think of it, you can't arrest us for bank robbery even if we did do it. You can detain us until the regular police get here, but you can't arrest us and bring us down to the station,"  
Motoko found herself very frustrated. She really hated all that political bureaucracy crap. And what was even more frustrating was that Nene seemed to know a lot about the loopholes.  
"You can't arrest us for cyber-crimes because I did nothing wrong and you have no proof of it," Nene said, "All you have is some kind of 'tag' that you assumed I wrote, which both of us know is not enough to go on,"  
"Goddamn it! I know you're the person that hacked into my mind!" Motoko shouted.  
"B-but you have no proof," she said nervously.  
Motoko pinched the bridge of her nose.  
"This is so fun," Ranma said happily, "This stuff's definitely more exciting than a physical battle,"  
"Um, t-this is the only kind of battle I'm good at," Nene said, not even all that sure she was confident about that.  
"Me, I probably would've been 'Nene ain't Net-Master. Go away. You can't beat me up so we are right," Ranma chuckled.  
"Look, I know you think I'm Net-Master, but I assure you, I'm not," Nene said to Motoko, "As a matter of fact, Ranma and I are actually looking for her right now,"  
Motoko perked an eyebrow. As skeptic as she was about whatever Nene or Ranma said, she was interested in hearing what they had to say about that.  
"It seems like there is an alternate version of myself that exist on this world," Nene stated, "We're trying to come in contact with her,"  
"What?" Motoko said.  
Nene said, "There's some kinda alternate version of myself that exist on this world,"  
Motoko obviously didn't believe a single word Nene was saying.  
"It know, it's kind of hard to believe, but you should keep an open mind," Nene said, "The 'tag' she leaves behind, is indeed, identical to the kind that I would write. That could easily explain your notion that I'm Net-Master. Um, hypothetically speaking, let's just say I did write that 'tag' in your brain. Sure, it my be exactly alike, but it doesn't all those 'tags' before that was written by me. Instead, it was written by an alternate version of myself, which explains why it looks exactly alike, cause we think alike,"  
"This is ridiculous," Motoko stated.  
"So's having God's phone number on speed dial, but it won't seem quite as ridiculous when you find out it's true," Ranma smirked, "So's destroying a world and recreating it just so you can save a single life but, once again, it doesn't seem so ridiculous to hear about if you find out it actually happened,"  
"What do you mean by that?" Motoko asked, very confused.  
"Nevermind," Ranma waved a hand, "You should just continue talk to Nene. She seems to know what she's talking about better than myself,"  
Nene cleared her throat, "Um, like I said, if you keep an open mind, it doesn't seem so ridiculous. Heck, you saw Ranma's wings, can you explain that?"  
"Cybernetic implants," Motoko said.  
Ranma turned around and faced his back toward Motoko, "Gee, if they're cybernetic implants, then where did my wings go? They seemed to have mysteriously disappeared, huh?" He made his wings shoot out, "Can cybernetic implants do this?" He retracted them again, "How about this?"  
Motoko and Bateau seemed speechless.  
"Maybe you should show them something like a ki-blast or an AT Field," Nene suggested, "Maybe if they see more stuff they can't understand, they'll realize that the idea that there's an alternate version of myself isn't so unbelievable,"  
"I guess you have a point," Ranma said.  
Ranma waved a hand in front of him as a red barrier suddenly appeared right in front of him. It flickered for a moment, bathing everyone in red light before it disappeared.  
"Now, what do you think that was?" Ranma smirked, "You think that's some cybernetic implant of mine doing that? My guess is no. How about you?"  
"W-what the heck was that?" Motoko asked.  
"It's an AT Field," Ranma said, "I have a protective barrier protecting me. It's a divine barrier. Yes, divine, as in Heaven and stuff 'divine'. It's an impenetrable protective barrier,"  
Motoko and Bateau was silent.  
Ranma chuckled, "In a sense, even if you managed to hit me in a battle, you're not gonna hurt me because you need to get past my AT Field, which is impossible to get past, since no technology can beat it. Only thing that can beat it is a certain weapon, the Lance of Longinus, which I don't even know if it exists on this world. And even if it does, it wouldn't really matter because I don't even need an AT Field in the first place and can do fine without one,"  
Motoko and Bateau both seemed unconvinced.  
Ranma raised his hand up into the air and shot a ki-blast straight up. The giant sphere of energy that erupted from his hands rocketed up into the sky where it disappeared high beyond the clouds. Dozens of people that had witness such an anomaly just stopped what they were doing to try and figure out what they saw, Motoko and Bateau two being of them.  
"That's a ki-blast," Ranma said, "I can produce massive amounts of ki, which is basically inner energy found within the body. Well, now that you've seen stuff like an AT Field and ki-blasts, does the idea of alternate people seem all that ridiculous?"  
Nene noticed that both individuals seemed too confused to comprehend what was going on.  
"I was much the same where I saw such things," Nene said, "Frankly, to this day, it still shocks me to see such things, and I've been exposed to stuff like that for years,"  
"This is crazy," Motoko's head was spinning. Things were supposed to make sense. Stuff that Ranma was showing her and telling her didn't make sense.  
Ranma grinned, "Of course stuff doesn't make sense to you. If you read the story of my life, which would probably take quite a while for you to read, it might make some sense. Heck, if you read about my life, it'd probably take you at least a week of non-stop reading. That's a lot of reading. It makes me wonder how someone could possibly spend that much time reading. Heck, I shudder at the thought of how long it would take to write such a story,"  
"What are you talking about?" Nene shot Ranma a very odd look.  
"Nevermind," Ranma chuckled, "I guess my ranting went of on a tangent,"  
Nene turned toward Motoko, "Look, it's really true that I'm not Net-Master. Everything may seem ridiculous, but there's a lot more other crazy stuff that's even more mind boggling. The notion that there's an alternate version of myself on this world isn't so far-fetched which is why we are on the look out for her,"  
"Look, I'll believe you for now, but still," Motoko caved in slightly.  
"You'll probably start believing with time," Nene said.  
"Cool, do we have some kinda truce?" Ranma asked, smiling.  
'What do you think?' Motoko asked Bateau, 'You want to have a truce for now, until we get more information about them?'  
'It's up to you,' Bateau answered, 'I think we should. As crazy as it might sound, maybe they could be telling the truth. I mean, think of it, how the heck do you explain away something like what we just saw? Maybe stuff like an alternate version of Nene isn't all that impossible,'  
'Fine, we'll go along with the truce, but only for now,' Motoko said. Motoko regarded Ranma for a moment. She didn't care. She still hated that man, especially for all the embarrassment he gave her. She still felt weary of having a truce with Ranma and was reluctant to say to him of her acceptance.  
"You on your period or something?" Ranma asked, "You seem mighty pissed,"  
"What?" Motoko's blood started to boil.  
"Ranma! I can't believe you said that!" Nene shouted loudly.  
"What'd I say wrong?" Ranma asked innocently.

new stuff 4/25

Nene and the others were gathered around the rooftop. A good deal of time had passed since Motoko reluctantly accepted a truce with Ranma and Nene. This gave Nene the opportunity to explain their situation, on what she and Ranma were there in the first place.  
"We are basically tourists," Nene stated, trying to explain to Motoko and Bateau why they were there in the first place, "We came from another world,"  
"This is so ridiculous I find it almost beyond comprehension," Motoko commented.  
Ranma smirked, "Hey, just because you doesn't believe in what you're hearing or seeing doesn't mean it isn't true. It's not like the universe revolves around you and what you think,"  
Motoko glared at Ranma. Why the hell did she make that truce with him in the first place?  
"Yeah, what, and it revolves around you Ranma?" Nene smirked. The reply made Motoko almost snicker a bit.  
"Who knows. Maybe," Ranma chuckled, "But then again, Shinji probably took the spotlight for a while when I was all messed up and on some rampage not too long ago,"  
"What are you getting at, Ranma?" Nene asked, "Are you talking to me or just talking to some invisible person? You say some really odd things from time to time,"  
"Nothing," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "I was just thinking about something,"  
"Anyway," Nene continued on, turning to Motoko and Bateau, "I know it's really hard to believe what we are saying, but what we say is true. If there's anything we could do to prove it to you that we are telling the truth, we will try our best,"  
Motoko thought for a moment, trying to think of a good thing they could do to help convince her. When she came up with nothing, she simply shrugged.  
At that moment, a small beeping noise emanated from Nene's pocket.  
"What's that noise?" Motoko asked, becoming cautious.  
"Sounds like a plot device. I mean a pocket device," Ranma said, grinning.  
Nene reached into her pocket and pulled out the small object that was making the noise. Ranma recognized it as the receiver to the motion sensor Nene had built by hand.  
"She's here!" Nene said, both excited and nervous.  
"Who?" Motoko asked. version.  
"Nene's alternate version," Ranma answered first, "She's the Net-Master person that you're looking for,"  
Motoko found herself assuming an alert stance, as if she was ready to do whatever necessary to bring that international criminal to justice.  
"Just wait here and watch over Nene," Ranma said toward Motoko and Bateau, "I'll go check the situation out,"  
"I don't think so," Motoko was having none of it, "I'm coming with you,"  
"Why?" Ranma said, "You're just gonna jump to conclusion and try and arrest her without hearing her story which'll spook her out,"  
"That's what I intend to do," Motoko said, "Have you any idea how much trouble she's caused all over the world?"  
Ranma shrugged, heading toward the edge of the rooftop, "Nope. Don't really care either,"  
"Well, I'm coming with you," Motoko said, following Ranma.  
"Fine, but only if you'll behave," Ranma said.  
"Right," Motoko said, complete sarcasm in her voice.  
Motoko and Ranma hopped off the rooftop, leaving Nene and Bateau alone.  
"Um, I guess it's just you and me," Bateau gave a shy smile toward Nene, scratching his head.  
"I guess so," she said.  
Ranma and Motoko landed on the sidewalk in front of the antique shop. Motoko was the first to enter the shop. Without knowing it, her arm was resting comfortably on her concealed gun located by her hip.  
"Lettme guess, when you're naked and all, so you can be invisible and such, where do you keep your gun?" he smirked.  
"What do you mean?" she asked, wondering where that was coming from.  
"Do you keep it y'know where?" Ranma nudged at her arm, the arm resting on her gun.  
Motoko narrowed her eyes on Ranma for a moment, wondering whether to pull out her gun for the obviously vulgar comment or to just let it slide. Although she didn't know Ranma that well, it didn't seem unlikely that he would say something so insanely suicidal without care.  
"Heh, we have a truce so you can't come out and shoot me," Ranma grinned, "Don't it just suck being a 'good guy'? That means you need to follow rules and such,"  
"And just what makes you think I'm a 'good guy'?" she said coldly.  
"Well, are you?" he asked bluntly.  
"It doesn't matter what you think, 'good guy' or 'bad guy'," she said.  
"True," he said, "Anyway, I don't think you should be all that cautious and all. We're talking about a young girl here, not some super powerful criminal,"  
"She's an international criminal, the world's most wanted criminal," Motoko answered, "I'm not going to let her get away,"  
"Whatcha gonna do, shoot her?" he asked.  
Motoko nodded slowly, "Yes, if that has to be done,"  
"Well, I ain't gonna letcha," Ranma said, "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation on why all of this stuff happened. Your approach seems stupid,"  
"And what are you to say about how I do my job?" she snapped coldly.  
Ranma shrugged.  
Together, they entered the shop, Ranma subconsciously opening the door for Motoko. She never bothered to thank him, finding Ranma's gesture rather asinine.  
"You're welcome," Ranma said, as if acknowledging the fact that she didn't thank him.  
Motoko remained silent, her gaze forward and into the shop.  
The antique shop looked much like a pawn shop. It had antique items resting on the top of tables neatly lined up to form isles that led to the back of the shop. Items varied considerably from clocks to lamps to cooking appliances and such.  
Immediately upon entering, the two of them spotted a young short-haired blond girl standing near the front of the shop by the counter, talking to what looked like a giant pole. Oddly enough, the giant pole was the elderly shop owner, his body having deteriorated long before his mind had.  
The two of them seemed like they were having a friendly conversation.  
Motoko pulled out her gun and was about to shout for the girl to put her hands in the air when Ranma grabbed her weapon arm.  
"What are you doing?" Motoko said in a loud whisper.  
"What the hell are you doing?" Ranma said in an angry whisper.  
"My job," she responded.  
"Well, if you do that again, you're gonna regret it," he said.  
"Is that a threat?" she narrowed her eyes.  
Ranma threw his hands up in the air, "Jeez, it's like arguing against Lina. This shit's so damn annoying. Look, just do nothing for now and let me do my thing,"  
"What is this thing you're talking about?" she asked.  
"Instead of just pulling a gun out like a crazy person, I'm just gonna try and talk to her," he said, "It's easier that way,"  
Motoko smirked, "You really think that's gonna work? Fine, go ahead,"  
She was aware of Net-Master's psychological profile and something like talking would not work. The thought of seeing Ranma fail miserably did appeal to her though.  
What the heck's wrong with me, Motoko thought. She was never like this. Could her animosity toward Ranma be that evident that she constantly spited him? She was usually level-headed and reserved, not quick to anger.  
Motoko went about pretending she was looking at some items so that Ranma could approach the girl alone, taking care to keep at least one eye trained on them all the while but remaining inconspicuous.  
Ranma walked up to the counter, stopping right behind the young girl, making it seem as if he was waiting on line for the girl to finish talking to the shop owner so he could ask for help or to buy something.  
He regarded the girl from behind and noticed that she looked very much human and had no ostentatious cybernetic body parts. She had short blond hair and stood to be around the same height as Nene, standing about as tall as his collarbone. She was petite, much like Nene and wore a pair of sweatpants one size too large as well as a sweatshirt. She looked to be around twenty, perhaps a bit older, but not much older. Ranma couldn't help but sense that this was the person he was looking for.  
"Yes, it's all done," the girl said, reaching into her pocket and producing a digital watch and placing it on counter, "It was really fun and simple to fix it. The LCD screen was short-circuited and several resisters needed to be replaced. That's it,"  
Ranma smirked. It seemed like this world was so technologically advanced that a digital watch would seem like an antique.  
"Thank you," the pole-like owner said, "Are you sure you want to give it to me? I'm sure this item will fetch you a nice price now that it's been fixed,"  
The girl smiled and said, "I'm fine. I just like fixing things and that's the only thing I'm interested,"  
"Okay," the man owner said, "Thank you. Once again, feel free to take whatever one item you would like in exchange,"  
"Thank you,"  
The girl, as if sensing someone behind her, turned around to face Ranma. When she saw him, she was momentarily startled.  
"Eep," she said, taking a step back, her back touching the counter.  
"Sorry," Ranma gave a warm smile, "I thought you knew I was behind you. Didn't mean to startle you,"  
"Um, it's okay," she answered sheepishly, not really making eye contact.  
"I notice you like antique stuff," Ranma commented.  
"Um, yes," she answered, "I like fixing them mostly, not collecting them,"  
"Same here," he said, grinning, "I like fixing stuff like that too,"  
He extended his arm to show his watch. It was a very simple mechanical watch, which, by that world's standards, would be considered like that of a relic. Funnily enough, if was odd that he even had a watch since he rarely ever referred to it. That and the fact that he can generally tell exactly what time it is without a watch.  
"Y'see? I like this stuff too," he said, "I got this not too long ago and fixed it,"  
"W-wow, and analog watch," the girl said, excited, "Those are rare,"  
"Yeah," he said, removing his watch, "Here, take a look,"  
The girl shook her head, "N-no thanks. I don't want to break it,"  
"So what? I can always fix it," he said, "Heck, if you break it, you'll be doing me a favor. That way, I'll have something to fix,"  
The girl took the watch and proceeded to inspect it.  
"I'm Ranma Saotome," he said.  
"I'm Nene Romanova," she answered.  
"Nene-chan, huh? That's a nice name," he said, "I have a friend that has the same last name. Maybe you might be related to him. Um, his name's Ryoga Romanova? I went to high school with him. Is he your brother?"  
The girl shook her head, "No. I don't have any siblings,"  
"Oh, then he must be your husband," he said.  
Nene-chan blushed, "N-no,"  
"Oh, so I guess it's a coincidence," Ranma said, "It's just that I thought otherwise," He pointed toward her hand, "Hm, I guess I should've noticed, what with you not having a ring and all. But then again, for all I know, you could've had a fight with him and had removed the ring because seeing it made you angry," "I'm not married," the girl said, "I don't even have a boyfriend,"  
The pole-like owner would've smirked if he had lips. It was obvious that the man had a way of talking to females and getting them to reveal some personal information about themselves without realizing it.  
The girl blushed a deep shade of red that made the already cute girl look even cuter. Ranma turned around and pretended he suddenly spotted Motoko. He then quickly turned back around, feigning a very worried look on his face.  
"Oh man," he said in mocked nervousness.  
"Something the matter, sir?" the owner asked curiously.  
Ranma stepped toward the side, partially hiding himself behind a lamp, making it seem like he was trying to avoid being seen by Motoko.  
"How'd she find me?" he pretended he was talking to himself.  
"Who? That woman?" the man asked.  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah. She's a girl I used to date around ten years ago. She cheated on me twice and we broke up. However, she promised me she would never do it again but I don't care. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't want her back and have learned to move on, so why don't she? This was ten years ago,"  
He couldn't help but feel very bad that he was outright lying about everything.  
The girl regarded Motoko with a bit of contempt but said nothing. This was not her place to make judgment about other people.  
"Hey, Nene, c-can you do me a very very big favor?" Ranma said in a pleading voice, as if he had suddenly come up with a great idea. "W-what is it?"  
"Pretend we're engaged," he said, "If she realizes that she and I are through and I've moved on and will be getting married soon, she'll leave me alone once and for all,"  
Nene-chan said nothing, not knowing what to really say. That was the most ridiculous plan she had ever heard.  
"I know we've just met, but can you please help me out?" he said.  
"Um, okay," she said after a moment. She couldn't say no. She was very much like the Nene that Ranma knew and he knew she was the type of person that would always help someone out when in need, even if it meant she was taking a bigger bite than she could chew.  
Ranma smiled warmly, "Thanks,"  
He turned toward Motoko and feigned surprised, pointing toward her.  
"You!" Ranma shouted loudly which started her.  
"W-what?" Motoko said, snapping to attention, ready for action.  
"I told you to stop chasing after me!" Ranma said, "We're through. It's time to move on. I'm never getting back with you after how much you've hurt me, y'hear? Never. I'm happy with my new life and I don't want you giving me any more trouble or grief. Nene here and I are engaged, and you're not going to ruin our relationship, so leave us alone,"  
"Yes, we're engaged," Nene-chan said, blushing all the while.  
"Right, so leave us alone," Ranma added.  
"What are you talking about?" Motoko said, thoroughly confused.  
"Don't play coy," Ranma said, "You and I both know we're through. Leave us alone,"  
Ranma grabbed Nene's hand and rushed out of the store, leaving behind a truly confused Motoko. A good minute passed before Motoko was able to get her bearings straight.  
Did she hear that correctly?  
"She and Ranma are engaged? What the hell's going on here?" she asked herself before heading out the door after them, not wanting to lose them. When she got outside, neither of them were in sight.  
What the heck did Ranma do and how did he get engaged so easily to someone he didn't know?

Nene wasn't as nervous around Bateau as she thought she would be. Ever since Ranma and Motoko disappeared to check out who went into the antique shop, she and Bateau had conversed to pass some time.  
It turned out that Bateau and Nene had some stuff in common, albeit little. Bateau knew quite a bit about computers. Of course, it could be because knowing so was a requirement for the line of work he did. "If you really are from some other world, then how are you able to use this world's computers so easily and freely?" he asked, hypothetically believing their story about being from a different world true.  
Nene answered, "This world's computers are vastly superior to my world's computers. However, they're superior in processing power. The actual fundamentals of it is very much the same. My world isn't technologically ancient compared to this world so most of the technology here reminds me of a better and faster version of my world,"  
"Oh," Bateau said.  
"You can probably use a computer much faster because you have those interface thingies," Nene commented, "Me, I have to use a keyboard and mouse so the amount of time I spend using those devices is probably astronomically longer than how fast you can interface with a computer," "I guess you have a point," Bateau said. He didn't bother to mention the fact that that didn't seem to be the case because Nene was able to interface with a computer as fast as them. It was very evident when Nene was involuntarily hacking into their headquarters' computer mainframe while they tried to block her out.  
"Can you tell me more about Tachikomas?" Nene asked.  
"Tachikomas? What about them?" he asked, "They're not all that interesting. They're AI-controlled, medium-armored vehicles,"  
"I've never seen something like that," Nene said, "From my perspective, they're really awesome,"  
"A Tachikoma, awesome?" Bateau scratched the back of his head, "I guess they might seem cool to someone that has never seen one before. I guess it's equivalent to a person seeing a car for the very first time. I've used them for so long that I don't think much about them anymore. They're constantly upgraded, so they're cutting edge technology, but I guess I kind of got used to them since I'm using them so much,"  
"I guess you have a point," she nodded.  
The was a moment of silence that, of all people, made Bateau feel awkward. "So, what do you think are the chances that the person we're looking for is that person?" Bateau asked from out of the blue.  
"I hope it's her," Nene said, "I wouldn't mind meeting an alternate version of myself. I'm curious as to how much we are alike or different. Ranma says that we are very much alike and differ only in slight cases,"  
"How would he know?" Bateau asked, a bit surprised at how convincing Nene's answers were, "What, has he ever met her?"  
Nene shook her head, "No. But he seems to be aware of her. I wouldn't be all that surprised. He was God, afterall, and that probably made him all-knowing,"  
She blushed. If Ranma was all-knowing, then that must mean he was aware of her secret crush with him. That was so embarrassing. But then again, if that was the case, would that mean she wouldn't have to build up the courage to approach him about her feelings toward him since he already knew?  
Bateau wondered why Nene was blushing so much. After a moment, he assumed it had something to do with Ranma. He didn't really know what their relationship was, but couldn't help but be curious about it.  
"So, what kind of relationship do you and Ranma share?" he asked, figuring it was best to just ask flat-out.  
Nene blushed for a moment, "W-what do you mean?"  
"Ranma is your boyfriend, lover, husband, what?" he asked.  
"No!" she quickly answered.  
"No what?" he asked.  
"Um, er, h-he's a very good friend," she answered, wondering if Ranma was listening. If she said anything else and he was around, she would be mortified. The fact that Ranma would tease her about it would make it all the more embarrassing.  
"Do you like him?" Bateau asked.  
"O-of course I like him," she answered, a bit quicker than she had said. When she realized how eager she sounded, she quickly looked around, expecting to find Ranma standing behind her. To her surprise, he wasn't around. Instead, she was startled when she saw Motoko right behind her.  
"M-Motoko," Nene took a step back, "I-I didn't hear you walk up behind me,"  
"You like him?" Motoko didn't want to fathom the very thought of what about Ranma could possibly make Nene like him. Then again, Nene was nuts, what with her saying she was from another world and such so perhaps liking someone like Ranma was understandable.  
Nene's silent blush told volumes.  
"Well, you might want to rethink your reasoning for actually liking someone like him because he just asked our target to marry him and ran off," Motoko said.  
"What?" Nene's eyes widened.

Perhaps no more than a few blocks away from them, Ranma and Nene-chan found themselves walking down a random street together.  
Ranma had no real idea where he was but he was sure he wasn't all that far away from the antique shop. Besides, they had only for a few minutes, long before Nene-chan could get tired or winded from trying to follow.  
"Thanks, I owe you bigtime for your help back there," Ranma smiled warmly, "I'm sure that little proclamation of us being engaged really shocked my ex into stopping chasing after me once and for all,"  
"Um, I'm glad I could help," she said softly, blushing as stared down toward the ground.  
"For your help back there, lettme take you out on a date," Ranma said, "You're a very interesting person and I would really like to get to you know better,"  
"A-a date?" Nene-chan was shocked to hear. This was the first time anyone had ever asked her out before and she didn't really know how to respond.  
"Yeah, a date," Ranma said, "It's the least I could do since I owe you so much,"  
"Um, I-I don't know what to say," she said nervously.  
Ranma smiled, "How about 'yes'?"  
Nene wondered where Ranma was with her alternate self as she and Motoko and Bateau wondered what to do now.  
"How could you have lost him?" Bateau asked Motoko, "You two went into the store together,"  
"He caught me off-guard," Motoko said in annoyance.  
"Well, I guess it's back to square one as we once again go out searching for him," Bateau sighed.  
Motoko cast a glance in Nene's direction, "I wouldn't worry about that. We have Nene in our custody. Where could he possibly go when he knows this?"  
Nene gulped, "Hold up. What do you mean by that? What do you plan on doing with me? I thought we have a truce,"  
"We do, but it doesn't mean we have to give you special treatment or anything," Motoko said coldly, "You, afterall, committed two very punishable crimes, what with the mere fact that you hacked into both Bateau and my brain,"  
Nene gulped.  
"However, Ranma did say that he was going to go about doing things his way," Motoko said, "And, as much as he annoys me, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it's all a part of his plan, to get closer to her,"  
"C-closer to her? Y-you think he likes her?" Nene asked, jealousy rearing its ugly head, "What's she look like? Is she pretty? Did it look like they got along fine?"  
Motoko was silent for a moment, wondering what had gotten into Nene.  
'Seems like she really likes Ranma,' Bateau silently communicated with Motoko, 'For her to get so fired up over something like this, it's gotta mean something,'  
'Seems like the case,' Motoko answered.  
"'Closer to her' as in establishing a good rapport to extract some information from her,' Motoko said to Nene.  
"Like what, like in her phone number and measurements such?" Nene asked in succession.  
"Not that kind of information," Motoko said to Nene, "Information as in if she's the Net-Master we are looking for. From my observation, he's good with words so there's a good chance he could somehow make her subconsciously tell him whether or not she's the Net-Master person we're looking for without her realizing it,"  
She paused for a moment, shocked at the fact that she had somehow complimented Ranma about him being good with conversing and information extraction. In a sense, Ranma was probably an excellent interrogator.  
"I wonder where they could have gone," Bateau commented.  
Nene thought about that comment in question for a moment. She was pretty confident that she knew Ranma well enough that she would know where he would go.  
"Ranma likes to eat," Nene commented.  
"What's that got to do with it?" Motoko asked.  
"If he's trying to find out more about that girl, he probably took her somewhere to get some food," Nene answered, "Like a restaurant,"  
"There are quite a bit of restaurants around here," Bateau commented, "Might you be able to narrow it down?"  
Nene scratched at her head, "Hm, Ranma likes western-style breakfast like sausage and eggs and such. If that was the case, he'd probably want to go to a diner. They usually serve those meals no matter what time of day,"  
"Hm, that kind of narrows things down a bit," Bateau said, "There are only two restaurants around here. If we search either of them, we might come across them,"  
"There could be a chance they went elsewhere," Nene commented, "Ranma would most ask where my alternate self wanted to eat and if she's like me, finding a particular eating place would be much harder to pinpoint,"  
"So I guess we are back at square one," Bateau said, "But then again, maybe, if it really is some kind of alternate version of yourself, you two would be much alike and what you like she will like as well,"  
'What, are you actually starting to believe that nonsense of a story they told us about being from another world?' Motoko's voice entered his mind.  
'Hey, I'm just keeping an open mind about everything,' Bateau answered her 'It doesn't mean I believe her, but it doesn't mean I outright think she's lying,'  
Bateau said to Nene, "Do you think that could work?"  
Nene nodded, "Maybe. If that's the case, she would like any good food,"  
"Good food, huh? That doesn't really help much," Bateau smirked.  
"Hm, wait, if Ranma's paying for the meal, then she would most likely eat at some really expensive place with lobster. That's what I would do,"  
Bateau and Motoko regarded Nene for a moment. Nene seemed to be either really devious in terms of dating or really cheap. For some reason, they believe it was the former more than the latter.  
"There's a very good seafood restaurant around here," Bateau said, "They serve really delicious,"  
"Just curious, but how do you know?" Nene asked, "Aren't you almost completely cybernetic? Do you even need to eat?"  
Motoko snickered a bit. That comment was rather amusing. It seemed like Nene didn't mind speaking what was on her mind, but usually wished she had thought first before saying what she was thinking.  
"I can eat," Bateau retorted, "Just because I don't need food to sustain me doesn't mean I can't enjoy something like that,"  
"Let's head for the seafood restaurant then," Motoko said.

"Let's go get some ice cream," Ranma suggested.  
"Ice cream? Okay," Nene-chan said. As much as she wouldn't mind having something like lobster, ice cream sounded fine.  
Ranma smiled. He was pretty sure Motoko would be out looking for him so he wanted to make it difficult for them to find him. He figured they would refer to Nene for help, most likely choosing to investigate nearby diners that prepared western breakfast or some expensive seafood restaurant. As intelligent as Nene was, Ranma had wisdom on his side and that always beat out intelligence. Above that, he was also a very good judge of character and he knew that Nene was in no danger having to be with Motoko and Bateau now. Afterall, Motoko's animosity was geared toward him, not Nene. Sure, there was that incident where Nene hacked into bother Motoko's and Bateau's brain, but they don't seem to harbor any real grudge from it.  
Ranma chuckled inwardly. "Um, what's so funny?" Nene-chan asked nervously.  
"Nothing," he said, "I was just thinking of a joke someone told me the other day,"  
"What joke is that? I like jokes," Nene-chan said.  
"It's a blond joke," Ranma smirked, "You'll probably take offense in it,"  
"I don't mind," she said. She wouldn't mind having a laugh. It would help loosen the atmosphere and perhaps make her feel less nervous.  
"Okay, 'A brunette walks into the doctor's office and goes 'Doctor, doctor, I hurt all over. It hurts when I press here,' she says as she presses her side," Ranma said, touching his ribs, "'The woman presses her leg, and says 'It hurts when I press here, and here, and here' The woman goes about pressing several spots on her body, yelping out in pain when she presses those parts. The doctor examines the woman and then comes to a diagnose. He says 'I found out what's wrong with you, you're a natural blond'. The brunette goes, 'Wow, you're right, how'd you know?' And the doctor goes 'Because, you have a broken finger',"  
Much to Ranma's surprise, Nene-chan laughed aloud, finding the joke genuinely funny even though she was a blond. The joke he said seemed to help lighten the mood up quite a bit because Nene-chan seemed much less nervous now and even gave him a quick playful punch in the arm for saying such an offensive, albeit funny, joke.  
Ranma looked down at his arm where Nene-chan had punched him and couldn't help but notice that this Nene-chan seemed to less shy around him despite them only having met not even ten minutes ago.  
"Have we ever met before?" Ranma asked. Nene-chan acted way too familiar with him for them to be complete strangers.  
"Do you say that to all the girls you meet?" Nene-chan asked, smirking.  
"Um, no," he said, caught a bit off-guard at the comment. The Nene he knew would probably say something like that, because they knew each other for a long time. Nene-chan on the other hand, was a complete stranger. It was as if Nene-  
chan did a complete change now that her nervousness seemed to have subsided. Perhaps Nene and Nene-chan were only similar in names and that was about it.  
"I don't think we've met before," Nene-chan said, "But for some reason, you do seem oddly familiar,"  
Ranma wondered how that was possible. If he was familiar to her, then that must mean they had come in contact with one another in some way or another.  
"Maybe we've met before," Ranma shrugged, "However, if that was the case, I'm sure I would not've forgetting some chick like you,"  
"Chick?" Nene-chan perked an eyebrow. This immediately reminded Ranma of the Nene he knew.  
"I mean girl," Ranma corrected himself, holding his hands up defensively, re-  
enacting exactly what he had said to Nene before.  
"Y'know what I mean. I might as well be honest, I'm a male chauvinistic pig and it usually takes time to change,"  
"Well, at least knowing is half the battle," Nene-chan stated.  
Ranma was silent for a moment. It definitely felt like he was experiencing d j vu.  
"You ever experience D j vu?" he asked, wondering if she was experiencing what he was experiencing.  
"Didn't you ask me that before?" she replied.  
Ranma chuckled at the joke.

new stuff 4/26

Ranma and Nene-chan found themselves waiting on line of an ice cream shop. The shop seemed very popular because the line was very long and it would most likely take a good ten minutes before either of them could place their orders to be made.  
"So, Nene, why dontcha tell me about yourself?" Ranma said, his voice soft. Although he was pretty sure he knew what kind of person Nene-chan was, he was genuinely interested in hearing what she had to say.  
"There's nothing all that interesting about me," she said shyly, her change in personality very dramatic. "How about I judge for myself?" he said, grinning.  
"Why don't you tell me about yourself instead?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.  
"What would you like to know?" he asked.  
"How about the same question applying to you?" she asked.  
Ranma decided now was a good time to start being honest. He gave Nene-chan a small smile and said, "Well, if I tell you the truth, I'm sure you wouldn't believe me,"  
"Try me," she said.  
"I became God, have weird God-powers, and used it to come visit this world," Ranma said. The people that were standing behind and in front of them stopped their conversing to look at Ranma oddly.  
Nene-chan gave Ranma an odd look as well.  
"Told ya ya wouldn't believe me," Ranma chuckled, "Actually, I doubt anyone would believe that story. Heck, even the people that know me and actually watched me go through what I've been through have trouble believing it,"  
Nene-chan remained silently for a moment, "And how long have you been visiting this world?"  
"Dunno, just a few days," Ranma said, knowing that Nene-chan was just humoring him, "But it doesn't matter. What matters now is exactly what I'm supposed to do while I'm here,"  
"And what's that?" she asked curiously, wondering what other far-off lie he was going to say.  
Ranma's face became serious, "To find out who 'Net-Master' is and have a little word with her,"  
Nene's visage suddenly changed to that of worry as she gulped, "N-Net-Master?"  
She cast a glance in the direction of the door, wondering if she should make a break for it. She should had known that this man was most likely some authoritative figure. Why was she always so na ve?  
"Um, have you had any luck?" she tried to say calmly.  
Ranma placed a hand gently on her shoulder, "What do you think?"  
Nene looked up and into Ranma's eyes and immediately knew that Ranma knew who she was, that she was Net-Master. "You were the cause of the virus that spread across the world that resulted in countries losing basically trillions of dollars in revenue, huh?" Ranma asked.  
Nene-chan's silence was a good enough answer.  
Ranma laughed, "That's funny," Nene-chan cast another glance toward the door.  
Ranma jerked a thumb toward the door behind him and said, "If you feel trapped and the need to run, go ahead, I won't stop you. However, I'd kinda like to know why you did what you did,"  
Nene-chan was silent for several moments before she said, "Because all of them deserved it,"  
As crazy as she sounded saying that to someone that would ultimately take her in, she sincerely believed what she was saying.  
Ranma shrugged.  
"Sounds like a good enough reason to me,"  
Nene and Bateau waited outside of the seafood restaurant for Motoko. When she came out, they noticed the annoyed look on her face.  
"They're not in there," Motoko commented, narrowing her eyes toward Nene, "Seems like your assumption of where they would be is wrong,"  
"Perhaps your original plan to just go to random restaurants is better and we should've done that instead," Nene replied, trying to stand her ground. She didn't like being talked down to. She made a mistake. It was understandable so why did Motoko have to make a big deal about it?  
Motoko ignored the comment.  
"There could be a chance Ranma knew what I would think and purposely chose something out of the ordinary," Nene said.  
"So you mean to say Ranma knew that you would choose to bring us to this seafood restaurant and, thus, not choose that location?" Bateau asked.  
Nene nodded, "Most likely. He's probably actively avoiding us and will pop up when he wants us to find him,"  
"Well, where do you think he might choose given the circumstances?" Bateau asked, knowing it was better to ask Nene for advice than Motoko. Nene shrugged, "I don't know, maybe an ice cream shop,"  
"An ice cream shop?" Motoko was skeptic, "From where I stand, it seems like you just threw that out at random,"  
Nene shook her head, "No. Ranma secretly likes ice cream but he doesn't openly eat it because he thinks liking and eating ice cream isn't manly. Therefore, to throw us off, he'd probably purposely choose something I know he would not choose. And knowing him, he'd probably have my alternate self choosing the flavor for him since he doesn't want to seem to eager to eat ice cream,"  
"Fine, let' head to the ice cream shop," Motoko said.

"You choose," Ranma said to Nene-chan.  
Ranma didn't really care what flavor ice cream Nene-chan chose because he was sure he would like it. Not needing to choose for himself gave him time to regard Nene-chan some more.  
He was a bit confused. If he was Nene-chan, he would have left in hopes of avoiding capture. The fact that she chose to stay and eat some ice cream with him instead of running away surprised him. Afterall, she barely knew him and there was no real reason for her to seem so trusting of him. Was she naturally trusting of people or just plain na ve?  
He didn't think about it much, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth. He knew Nene pretty well and was pretty sure Nene-chan liked ice cream every bit as much as Nene. Afterall, Nene did like good tasting food and ice cream always tasted great.  
He couldn't help but wonder what Nene-chan intend to do after their meal. Where would she go? Would she run or perhaps turn herself in so that things could be cleared up and she not having to worry about living a worrisome life of being caught.  
Ranma smirked.  
"So, since it seems like you trust me, why dontcha tell me what's the deal with the virus ya let loose on the world?"

Motoko swore under her breath as she raced toward the nearby ice cream shop. She was alone, having headed on ahead due to Nene. The original plan was for all three of them to go to the ice cream shop but Nene, not being in the best of shape, needed to stop quite frequently to catch her breath.  
"How can you live like that?" Motoko asked herself, wondering how someone could be so easily winded. They hadn't even run one block before Nene needed to stop to catch her breath. She made it to the shop before long and stopped just outside the entrance, glancing in through the window in hopes of spotting Ranma and Nene-chan before they left, provided they were there in the first place.  
After scanning the inside, she noticed that neither Ranma nor Nene-chan were there.  
"Looking for me?" came a voice.  
Even Motoko, a highly trained operative used to the unexpected, was startled. Being virtually completely cybernetic had its advantages. Not only was she immune to becoming tired, but she had proximity devices implanted within her body that prevented her from being snuck up upon.  
When she turned around to see who it was, she realized it was Ranma.  
He was leaning against the side of the building, his arms across his chest, a smirk on his lips.  
"Ranma," Motoko said, surprised on how he could've gotten so close to her without her detecting him.  
"What, you ain't gonna pull out your gun and jump to conclusion like you always do?" Ranma smirked.  
"Where is she?" Motoko asked, noticing that Nene-chan wasn't with Ranma.  
"Her name's Nene," Ranma said, "And yes, it turns out that she is Net-Master,"  
"Where is she?" Motoko asked.  
"Dunno," Ranma shrugged.  
"What? You let her go?" Motoko found herself becoming angry.  
"Man, it's so easy pushing your buttons," Ranma commented, "You're so easy to make angry, y'know that?"  
"It's because it's you," Motoko said coldly, "Why'd you let her go?"  
Ranma said, "Why not?"  
"Because she's-" she began.  
"I never 'let her go'," Ranma said, "If I were to do that, it would mean my catching her. I never intended to NOT let her go. I just wanted to talk to her. Now that things seem cleared up, she left,"  
Motoko found her blood boiling. She knew Ranma was unpredictable, but his unpredictability seemed chaotic.  
"Yeah, she released the virus which resulted in businesses losing trillions in revenue, but she said the businesses hit with it deserved it so that's that. We should leave her alone,"  
"Deserved it? You let her go because she said that?" Motoko said, "She's an international criminal!"  
"So?" Ranma said.  
Motoko found herself suddenly developing a migraine, which was very odd since her cybernetic body didn't develop stuff like aches and pains.  
"First off, before you blow a gasket in that engine you call a body, maybe you should take into consideration that we, Nene and I, were the ones that found her," Ranma commented, assuming a serious tone, "What we do, be it 'letting her go' or just meeting her, is of no concern to you,"  
Ranma felt it was about time to have a little heart-to-heart with Motoko. "I talked her for a good deal of time and it seems like your view of her is one sided," Ranma said.  
"Oh, and how so?" Motoko retorted, "She created and released a virus on the world that almost put the world into economic failure. She committed crimes like Government-tampering, Economy-degradation, International-Database-Corruption, and much much more. Those are international crimes where the minimum penalty is Ghost White,"  
Ranma shrugged, "Sounds like gibberish to me,"  
"Just because you don't understand doesn't make the crimes less significant," Motoko answered.  
"Didja know why she released that virus?" Ranma asked, smirking, knowing that Motoko didn't know how to answer that.  
"Because she's got the psychological profile of a sadist," Motoko answered, "She enjoys seeing the misfortune of others, that being businesses,"  
"Riiiiight," Ranma said, chuckling, "A sadist,"  
"Let me guess, she told you the reason," he said, "And you believe it. What reason did she give you,"  
Ranma said, "Well, you don't know the full story or where we are coming from so you won't be able to fully comprehend her reasoning. I need to talk to Nene about that. Nene as in the one I came to this world with, not the Nene I was just with. Since they both have the same name, for convenience, I'll refer to 'Net-Master' as Nene-chan and Nene as Nene,"  
"What do you mean by my not knowing the full story?" Motoko asked.  
"I need to talk to Nene and see what she can make out from it," Ranma said, "Anyway, it seems like the virus was released specifically to target certain businesses,"  
"Seems like you were lied to," Motoko smirked, already finding the flaw in the explanation, "The virus spread throughout the world. No one was immune to being struck by that virus,"  
"I betcha your Headquarters' main computers weren't struck with them," Ranma smirked.  
"And what makes you think that's true?" Motoko responded.  
"Well, were they?" Ranma asked.  
"Well, no, but that's because we were the front lines of battling the virus," Motoko said, "We had the latest anti-virus barriers set up which is why we were never struck with it,"  
Ranma said, "Well, from what I was told, it doesn't seem like that's the reason why it didn't happen. Your computers were never in danger. Anyway, we'll get to the bottom of this,"  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a diskette.  
"What's that?" Motoko asked, not immediately recognizing the object. After a moment, she recognized it, but not before Ranma said something.  
"It's called a floppy disk," Ranma smirked, "In this world, this thing would be considered a relic,"  
"What's it for?" she asked.  
"It contains the 'source-code' for the virus," Ranma said, "Nene-chan gave it to me. As to exactly why she had this on her when I bumped into her, I'll probably never know,"  
"The source code? Really?" Motoko extended her to take the diskette.  
Ranma pulled the diskette away before she had a chance to grab it, "Nope. She gave it to me,"  
"What do you intend to do with it?" Motoko asked, wondering if Ranma was telling the truth. He was probably just pulling her leg that that diskette contained the source code and just wanted to see how she would react. The world had spent ten years trying to figure out the code that implemented that virus. "I'm gonna give it to Nene," he said, "I'd like for her to look at it and see what she can make of it since all that stuff will be gibberish to me. She and Bateau should be showing up here at around now,"  
"How would you know?" Motoko had to ask.  
"I figured out how long it would take you guys, with Nene's help, to figure out where I went," he answered, "And around now is when Nene will be showing up,"  
At that moment, Nene and Bateau came walking around the corner. "Speak of the devil,"

new stuff 4/27

Nene stopped in front of Ranma and rested her hands on her thighs while she took a moment to catch her breath.  
"I can see down the front of your shirt," Ranma commented, grinning.  
"Ranma!" Nene blushed, quickly closing up the front collar portion of her shirt.  
"Hey, why'dya go and do that?" Ranma said, "The female body is a beautiful thing,"  
'This guy's probably as blunt as they come,' Motoko said to Bateau.  
'Seems so,' Bateau replied. Nene narrowed her eyes at Ranma, forgetting about being tired.  
"What did you find out?" Nene asked, "So was that girl really an alternate version of me?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"  
He produced a diskette and held it out for Nene to take. He cast both Motoko and Bateau a glance and said, "Don't even think of swiping that disk from Nene. This is only for her. Besides, since you two don't believe anything I say about us being from a different world, that's awfully hypocritical of you to believe that that disks for real,"  
Nene looked at the item, "It's a diskette,"  
"I think I managed to figure that out," Ranma said, "I'm not that good with computers, but I'm not that bad,"  
Nene giggled, "I guess so. What is it?"  
"Your alternate self said it's the source code for the virus," Ranma said, "Perhaps if you look at it, you might be able to understand more about it,"  
Nene scratched her head, "If this is the source code to the virus, then I've got a funny feeling I already know it,"  
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.  
"Well," she said, "If the alternate version of myself and I are basically exactly alike, then that would mean we would write the exact same program. Remember what I said about my having a program on my own computer that goes kicks in whenever my computer gets SPAM? This is probably the exact same program,"  
"SPAM?" Motoko said, turning toward Ranma, "Don't tell me that that's the reason Net-Master released that virus,"  
"Her name's Nene, not Net-Master. At the very least, call her Nene-chan," Ranma said, turning toward Nene, "She mentioned that, SPAM. Maybe if you take a look at the code, you'll know for sure,"  
"I guess so," Nene said, "But that's a floppy disk, I'm sure it's going to be very hard to find a computer that exists, that still works, that accepts floppy disk,"  
Ranma said, "They must have a museum on this world. Let's break into that and steal one. I'm sure those kinda computer are considered relics so it's only natural for one to be found in a museum,"  
Nene cast Bateau and Motoko a worried glance.  
"What, it's not like they're gonna stop us," Ranma said, nudging at Motoko, "Right? I'm sure you two learned by now that, heh, we can do whatever the heck we want and there's nothing you two can do about it,"  
"Why you arrogant-" Motoko found herself fuming because his statement was entirely true.  
"Don't worry, it's not like we're gonna break it or anything," Ranma said, "We're just gonna borrow it,"  
"What you're doing is illegal," Motoko commented, "Tampering with artifacts is considered-"  
"So?" Ranma shrugged, "Ain't gonna make me lose sleep at night. Besides, ain't that stuff outta your jurisdiction? We're gonna be doing stuff like stealing and such, not cyber-crime,"  
"Nothing is out of our jurisdiction," Motoko answered.  
"Oh well, no skin of my back," Ranma shrugged, "Doesn't matter to me if this is a crime within your works' jurisdiction or not,"  
Motoko let out an annoyed breath.  
"Look, woman," Ranma said, "You should do something about your anger. Perhaps take some anger management course or such, really. All that anger's gotta be not good for you,"  
"For your information, it's you that's pissing me off," Motoko answered.  
"So?" Ranma said, "It's not my fault you seem to be getting pissed off at everything I do. If what I do pisses you off so much, walk away and go do something else. I dunno, fly a kite or something. It should take your mind off of me,"  
"Fly a kite, what the heck does that have to do with this?" Motoko asked.  
"That's just an example," Ranma waved a hand, "Why d'ya hafta be all serious? Just relax for once, jeez,"  
'Ranma does have a point,' Bateau communicated to her, 'You've been getting pretty riled up recently, ever since Ranma showed up. Keep in mind that we have a similar mentality with our job, to do what's deemed necessary so long as it gets use results,'  
Motoko took Bateau's comments into consideration and said, "Ranma, what do you intend to do?"  
"Well, at this point in time, I probably wouldn't tell you since you'll probably get all anal and try and stop us," Ranma said, "But since I already let on that we should go to a museum for an old computer, that's what we're going to do. Nene and I are going to go to the museum, whether or not you two wanna come is up to you. However, if you do come, don't expect to stop us from carrying out our task,"  
Motoko was silent for a moment, "We'll come with you,"  
She knew that it was best to swallow her pride and follow along. Finding out more information about the virus was of greater priority than her constant annoyance with Ranma.  
Nene's stomach rumbled.  
Ranma chuckled, "Hm, let's go eat first,"

Motoko was very impatient as she sat next to Bateau, watching Ranma and Nene eating their meals. "You're sure taking your time eating," Motoko commented in annoyance, the comment aimed toward Ranma mostly. "She's your height with short blond hair," Ranma was talking to Nene, "From what I could tell, she was somewhere around twenty, perhaps a bit younger,"  
"And she acts a lot like me?" Nene asked, wondering what Ranma thought of that girl. Ranma scratched his head, "Yeah and no. She reminds me quite a bit like you. However, what surprises me is that she acts like the way you do after we got to know each other,"  
"What do you mean?" Nene asked.  
"Her personality seems like a combination of when we first met and now," he said, "For instance, when we first met, you were pretty shy and quiet around me. But as time passes, and we knew each other better and better, you seemed much more outgoing around me. That's how it is with her. One second, she's quiet and such. And the next second, she's outgoing. It makes it kinda hard to read her,"  
"She's not a book, Ranma," Motoko said.  
"No, she isn't," Ranma answered, "Anyway, from the short time I've been with her, I found out quite a bit,"  
"Like what?" Nene asked.  
"First off, she's not human," Ranma said, "At least, if she was human, she doesn't have human eyes,"  
Nene narrowed her eyes at Ranma, "Don't tell me you tried to read her mind,"  
Ranma gave her a shy smile, "It couldn't be helped. I know I promised Luna I would not do it, but I think I did it for a good reason,"  
"Read her mind?" Motoko was surprised to hear, "You can read a person's mind?"  
"Yeah, I can," Ranma said, smirking.  
Motoko didn't believe what Ranma was saying, "Fine, then what am I thinking?"  
"Hm, I guess you don't listen that well, huh?" Ranma grinned, "I said I couldn't read her mind because she doesn't have human eyes. You have cybernetic eyes. How do you expect me to read your mind? I guess that fact seemed to have escaped ya, huh?"  
"Then what good is an ability like that if it's limited to that?" Motoko leaned back in her seat.  
"Can you read my mind?" Ranma leaned forward toward her. When Motoko was unable to answer, "Well, it seems like you're no better off than I,"  
"He does have a point," Bateau chuckled in agreement.  
"Are you saying my alternate self isn't human?" Nene asked.  
Ranma shook his head, "No, I didn't say that. It just means that she doesn't have human eyes. She could be completely cybernetic like Motoko and Bateau here. I must admit, the technology on this world is so good that even I can't tell just by looking at someone," For added effect, Ranma held two hands up and squeezed them, as if he was squeezing a pair of invisible breasts, "Since I can't tell by look, that means I'd need to resort to touch,"  
"Ranma," Nene said, pushing him almost out of his seat.  
Ranma laughed, "I was only joking around,"  
"Yeah, I bet," Nene huffed.  
'They argue like some kind of married couple,' Bateau commented.  
'I agree,' Motoko answered.  
"It's very common for people to get cybernetic implants," Bateau commented to the two of them.  
"Heh," Ranma grinned.  
"Not those kinda implants!" Nene said, shoving Ranma again which caused him to laugh again.  
Bateau couldn't help but snicker.  
"I wonder why her personality changes," Ranma said, changing the subject, "I wonder if she's schizophrenic. One second she acts like she knows me, and the next second she acts like she just met me,"  
"Have you two ever met before?" Nene asked, "Since you're aware of there being an alternate version of myself, that could mean that you two have met and simply don't remember,"  
"Know, I'm only aware of her during the time I was God," Ranma answered, "I know I've never met her. As to how she could've met me or know me, I have no idea,"  
Nene scratched her head, "Maybe there's an alternate version of you that exist on this world and she met that person,"  
"Really? You think?" Ranma's eyes lit up, "That'd be pretty cool, meeting an alternate version of myself,"  
"Um, haven't you been there and done that?" Nene said, "You've already met alternate versions of yourself, especially a God-version of yourself. Heh, and frankly, that version kicked your ass,"  
"Ha ha," Ranma wasn't all that amused.  
"If there is an alternate version of yourself on this world, that could explain why it seems like she knows you," Nene commented, "But then again, if there is an alternate version of you, wouldn't he have grown up and found a way off this world and messed up other worlds by now?"  
"Ha ha," Ranma said again.  
"Don't you think we are a bit off subject here?" Motoko said, "The important thing to worry about is the source code for the virus," "From your point of view, maybe," Ranma said, "But not from where we're sitting. What's more important is figuring out Nene's alternate version,"  
"How is that more important?" Motoko couldn't follow them, "We have an international criminal on the loose, thanks to you letting her go no less, and you think knowing more about her is more important? If you wanted to know more about her, you should have contained her,"  
"I never 'let her go'," Ranma corrected Motoko, "Doing so requires that I take her into custody or such, which I didn't,"  
Nene, knowing that it was useless to stop Motoko and Ranma from arguing against one another, knew she had to step in.  
"I'm done eating," Nene pushed her plate of food aside, "I think it's about time we go check out the contents on the diskette,"  
"Okay," Motoko happily agreed.

Motoko sat next to Nene as the two of them sat next to a computer. The two of them were sitting in front of a 'relic' of a computer within an exhibit in the museum. Ranma and Bateau were no where to be seen, having gone off to wander around.  
The museum was empty of everyone but the four of them, having been evacuated long before their arrival thanks to Bateau and Motoko.  
While the group were on their way to the museum, Motoko sent the place an anonymous message saying that a bomb had been planted there and would go off soon. This left the group with only a short period of time before an actual bomb squad showed up to defuse the non-existent bomb.  
"Any luck?" Motoko asked, very surprised at how efficient Nene was with a keyboard.  
"Still trying to find out," Nene answered, staring straight at the screen, busy writing a quick emulation program that would read the disk. It turned out that the 'relic' of a computer did have the proper floppy drive to read the diskette, but was useless unless it had the proper program to actually read the contents of the disk, a program Nene had to create right on the spot.  
"You seem very good with computers," Motoko had to admit, "It's a shame that you use your talents for criminal activities,"  
"I didn't know I was hacking into your brain," Nene said, "I swear,"  
"But you knew you were hacking into something," Motoko answered, "And you know that's illegal,"  
Nene was silent for a moment.  
"Well, I did it for a good reason," she finally answered, "I guess it's Ranma's influence. I don't see everything in black and white anymore. Sure, I do do things I'm not proud of, but I think the end justifies the means. I know you don't see it that way, but I think if you know some of the stuff I've seen or been through, you'd understand,"  
Nene couldn't help but feel a bit weird lecturing Motoko, someone that she could easily consider her sempai. "Take Ranma for instance," Nene said, "He does do bad stuff, but he's done much more good than bad. If you break everything down, you'll realize that he's not a bad guy,"  
"What about him robbing a bank?" Motoko smirked.  
"Um, well, he's not THAT much of a bad guy," Nene gave a meek smile.  
Motoko shrugged, "I'm surprised he just up and left the two of us alone. You'd figure he'd be nearby watching out for you. Heck, if I wanted to, I could just take the disk from you and just take you into custody for your crimes,"  
"I guess you can, but what use would doing that be?" Nene answered calmly, "We're basically on the same team. And, not to sound arrogant or anything, but it seems like you need us more than we need you,"  
"What?" Motoko was surprised at the claim.  
Nene gave a shy smile.  
"Care to elaborate?" Motoko asked.  
"Well, Ranma's much better at finding your Net-Master 'criminal'," Nene answered, "You found out about her location because you followed Ranma, not the other way around,"  
Motoko cleared her throat, "Did you know that, because of Ranma, I lost my chance to capture her?"  
"Huh? You did? How?" Nene asked.  
"When we first bumped into each other," Motoko said, "I was chasing her. Because of Ranma, I ended up losing her and my one and only chance of capturing her. I was so close to catching her that she would not have gotten away. Had Ranma not showed up, I would've caught her,"  
Nene's surprise was genuine, "I-I never knew that,"  
"What do you think I can't stand Ranma?" Motoko said, her voice a bit cold, "I have been chasing Net-Master for ten years and he ruined my chance of catching her,"  
"So you hate him because of a grudge?" Nene asked.  
Motoko became silent when she heard that. "You know how I met Ranma?" Nene asked, "Through a misunderstanding, we tried killing each other. It was three of my friends and I going up against Ranma. He almost killed all four of us. However, despite that, we don't harbor any grudge,"  
"What kind of misunderstanding?" Motoko was curious.  
"We thought he was a boomer," Nene said.  
"A boomer?" Motoko asked.  
"Basically, a robot," Nene answered, "His friends and family was murdered by boomers,"  
Motoko was silent once again.  
"Done writing the program," Nene said, changing the subject, "Now we can get a look at the code and see if it's similar in code to a program I have on my computer back home,"  
Motoko regarded the screen, eager to find out the details. Nene scanned through several lines of code. After a few minutes, her assumption was confirmed.  
"I'll be damned," Nene said.  
"What?" Motoko asked.  
"This is the code to my program," she answered, scratching her head, "What the heck's going on here? Can the alternate version of myself and I be so similar that we even code in the exact same manner? This is creepy,"  
"What do you think that means?" Motoko asked, knowing that she had no clue.  
"I have no idea,"

new stuff 4/28

Ranma and Bateau walked down the quiet hallway, observing the exhibits that lined both sides.  
"You seem awfully relaxed considering you left Motoko and Nene alone," Bateau commented.  
"Motoko isn't pissed at Nene so Nene doesn't have much to worry about," Ranma answered, "She's just pissed at me. Besides, they have the same goal so it would be stupid for Motoko to do anything to frighten Nene. Heh, also, I'm sure Motoko realized that she needs Nene much more than Nene needs her. If she does anything stupid and makes Nene refuse to help out, you two are shit outta luck,"  
"You guys don't have anything to go on to finding Nene-chan," Ranma said, point it his head, "While I do. Nene-chan, before we split, told me when and where to meet her tomorrow if I needed to come in contact with her,"  
"Really?" that was news to Bateau.  
Ranma chuckled, "Now the funny part is that you dunno if I'm lying or not. Maybe I might meet her and maybe I might not,"

Ranma and Bateau approached Nene and Motoko as they sat in front of the ancient computer.  
"How goes everythin'?" Ranma asked. Because Nene and Motoko was sitting next to each other, Ranma ended up placing a hand on each shoulder as she stood just behind the center of both of them.  
"Do you mind?" Motoko asked, annoyed at Ranma's touch.  
"Nope," Ranma answered, not taking his hand away.  
Motoko ostentatiously reached one of her hands up and brushed his hand away from her shoulder. She even took an extra step as to brush her shoulder as if dusting away whatever germs there was on Ranma's hands.  
"That hurt," Ranma made an exaggerated facial expression.  
"The code is exactly like the code for the program I have on my computer," Nene interrupted, wanting to change the subject. Ranma scratched his head, "Hm, I guess that means your alternate version of yourself and you are a lot alike. Perhaps you guys think in the exact same fashion,"  
"Yeah, but considering how we grew up under completely different circumstances and our living experiences are most definitely different, for something to be exactly alike is almost mathematically impossible," Nene commented.  
"Nothing's impossible," Ranma chuckled, "After all that you've seen, you should already know that. We have God on speed-dial back home. Heh, I'm sure that seems even more impossible,"  
Motoko and Bateau looked at one another, wondering what the heck Ranma was talking about.  
"Well, there's no use in dwelling on it," Ranma shrugged, "I'm sure there's a good reason,"  
"Whatever the reason is, I'm at a complete loss," Nene sighed, "Man, I kind of wish Ritsuko is here. Her 'explanation sessions' would probably help clear up everything,"  
"Unfortunately, she isn't here, so we need to make do without her," Ranma said, "Let's start brainstorming and see with what we can come up with,"  
"Well, first off, we know there's an alternate version of myself," Nene began listing, "There's a chance that she knows an alternate version of you, which would explain why she kind of acts like she knows you,"  
"But then again, for all we know, she could be schizophrenic," Ranma stated, "That could explain the changes in personality. As to why she writes the exact same program as you, perhaps she is identical, and, if you were in her position, you would've written the exact same code,"  
"Why did she release that virus?" Nene asked, wanting something else to focus on, "Did she tell you?"  
"She said the people hit with the virus deserves it," Ranma said.  
Nene scratched her chin, deep in thought, "Deserved it, huh? Well, since she created the same program as I have, could that mean the targets of that program are the exact same as mine?"  
"And what would that be?" Ranma asked.  
"Anyone who sends out SPAM," Nene answered.  
Everyone fell to the ground in surprise.  
"That's the most ridiculous reason I've ever heard," Motoko said as she got back up and onto her seat.  
"Could explain why your Section-9's computer was never hit with the virus," Ranma said.  
Motoko didn't bother to argue, figuring it was best to keep an open mind.  
"That could very well be the main reasoning behind the virus," Nene said, nodding, "My computer back home has been struck with SPAM before and the computers that sent it out was specifically attacked and basically locked down from use,"  
"Let me get this straight, the virus that nearly put this entire world in economic failure was basically some kinda revenge virus to SPAM?" Motoko asked.  
"Didn't you say virtually all business computer were struck with that virus?" Nene asked, "Were there any instances where the virus struck anything but computers that could SPAM people?"  
Motoko thought about it for a moment. After a moment, she did notice a connection. The virus never stuck anything beside business mainframes and such. Could that really be true, that that virus only attacked anything that had to do with SPAM?  
She shook her head, "No, that can't be true. That's ridiculous,"  
"Well, since the program is exactly like one I wrote, you can kinda consider me the creator," Nene commented, "And from my point of view, that could very well be it. Looking at the code, I can already tell it's specifically designed to fight SPAM and nothing else,"  
"That can explain why she released the virus," Ranma said, "Because, much like how you hate SPAM, since she's the same as you, she hates it as well. Her motive seems very simple,"  
"Man, I wonder if I should worry about the program I wrote back home," Nene said, "I wouldn't want something to happen back home than happened here,"  
"Maybe SPAM's more evident on this world," Ranma shrugged, "After, this world is much more advanced and focuses mostly on computers and such,"  
"Ranma, is there any chance you can come in contact with my alternate version?" Nene asked, "I'd really like to talk to her,"  
Ranma nodded, "Sure, if y'want. She gave me her address so we can go visit her whenever we like,"  
"You know her address?" Motoko's eyes widened.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. She told me it before she left and to stop by if I ever have questions. Before you even ask, no, I ain't giving you that address. If you ever show up at her place, it'll be either with me accompanying you, or you having found out about her location without my help,"  
"Are you working with us or against us?" Bateau had to ask.  
"Neither,"

"It seems like you have assumed yourself as the leader of this investigation," Motoko commented as she and the others followed Ranma down the street.  
All of them were on their way toward a secret location that was Nene-chan's address.  
"If you don't like it, then go away and do everything on your own," Ranma said matter-of-factly, "It don't bother me,"  
"How can you possibly stand someone so power hungry as him?" Motoko had to ask Nene.  
Nene kind of annoyed her because she seemed to blindly follow Ranma's suggestion and lead.  
"Because I trust his judgment," Nene shrugged, "Nothing much more to it. It's because you don't know him that makes you question everything,"  
"What does that mean?" Motoko asked.  
"No offense, but whether or not you're here with us doesn't really matter," Nene said with a shy look, "He's dealt with situations far worse than this before. In actuality, if you just let him go about with his business, he can probably solve this much faster and quicker than you two,"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes, a bit offended at the comment, "It seems like you're saying I'm not good at my job,"  
Nene held up her hands defensively, "I'm not saying that. Um, it's just that I think Ranma's better at it,"  
That seemed to really shut Motoko up, especially when she noticed how Nene seemed to genuinely believe that comment.

Nene-chan was startled when she heard a knock at her door. This was the first time anyone had ever knocked on her door before ever since she started living there around ten years ago.  
She resided in a tiny apartment building in a dilapidated.  
"Who is it?" Nene-chan approached the door.  
"It's me, Ranma," she recognized Ranma's voice. This brought a smile to her lips.  
She quickly opened the door to allow Ranma in. Ranma was alone.  
"Ranma, what brings you here?" she asked, stepping toward the side to allow him in.  
Ranma gazed around in the apartment and was surprised at how bleak-looking it was. Aside from a lone chair in the corner of what probably was the bedroom/livingroom, the apartment was completely empty. It reminded him a bit of Rei's apartment when he first visited her a long time ago. The difference was that this apartment had even less furnishings than Rei's then.  
"Didja just move here?" he asked.  
"No," she shook her head, "I've been living here for around ten years,"  
Ranma scratched his head, confused about that comment. How could she had been living there for ten years. There wasn't even a bed.  
So, what brings you here?"  
"I came to ask you some stuff," he said, "A friend of mine checked out the disk and was surprised to recognize the code,"  
Nene-chan said nothing, listening carefully.  
"I know that this must seem strange, but my friend is an alternate version of you," Ranma began, jerking a thumb toward the door, "She's waiting outside the apartment complex with a couple of others. She's the one that's really interested in talking to you about the program,"  
"An alternate version of myself?" Nene-chan asked, "Did I hear that correctly?"  
Ranma gave a shy smile, "I know, it sounds weird, but it's the truth,"  
"I believe you," she said suddenly.  
"Um, thanks," he said, wondering why this girl seemed so trusting, "Would you like to come with me to talk to her or would you want me to ask her to come in?"  
"It doesn't matter to me," she answered.  
Ranma smirked, "All right, I'll ask her to come in then,"  
Nene-chan waited patiently as Ranma left, only to come back in a minute later, Nene in tow. For some odd reason, when she saw Nene, she couldn't help but feel like she had met her before, much like the way she felt like she had met Ranma before.  
"I'm gonna go wait outside while you two talk," Ranma said, "Motoko's probably all anxious about coming barging in, so I'll just wait outside to keep her and Bateau from doing anything foolish,"  
Ranma left, leaving Nene-chan and Nene alone.  
"You're Nene Romanova?" Nene asked her, a bit skeptic about how someone that could look so differently could be almost identical to her.  
Nene-chan nodded, "Yeah. Ranma says you're some kinda alternate version of myself. If you're me, um, you'd think we'd actually look alike,"  
"Actually, that's the exact same thing I was about to say," Nene stated.  
There was a moment of awkward silence as both girls wondered what to say. Both of them seemed confused.  
"Um, I saw your program," Nene commented, "It's, um, very well done,"  
"Thanks," Nene-chan seemed a bit proud of that comment.  
"What's strange is that I wrote a program almost exactly like that before," Nene commented.  
Nene-chan was surprised, "Really? Can I see it?"  
"Um, unfortunately, I don't have it," Nene replied, "I guess you can only go on my word,"  
"Oh," Nene-chan said, a bit sad, as if she had really wanted to see the code.  
"Can you tell me a bit about the program?" Nene asked, "The virus is designed to basically render computers that SPAM unusable. Did you really release the virus specifically for that reason?"  
Nene-chan nodded, "Yes,"  
This surprised Nene because she wasn't expecting her alternate self to so readily admit having done that.  
Nene laughed a bit, "Wow, all of this was done because I, I mean you, hate SPAM? This is quite a surprise. Are you aware that you're labeled as Net-Master because of this?"  
Nene-chan nodded, "Yes, but it doesn't bother me. Laws don't apply to me,"  
"Why not?" Nene asked.  
"Because I'm an AI,"

new stuff 4/29

Outside the apartment, Ranma walked as a beautiful looking woman walked right by him as he sat on the stairs in front of the entrance. Motoko was next to him, leaning against the railing and she noticed Ranma basically ogling the woman. Bateau wasn't around, having taken point in the back of the building where there was a rear entrance, just in case Nene-chan tried to make a run for it.  
"Nene'll be upset if she saw you ogling women," Motoko commented.  
"We ain't married or nothing," Ranma said, "And besides, that's never stopped me,"  
Motoko found herself even more angry at Ranma than normal. She knew that Nene seemed to have feelings for him, and the fact that he seemed to dismiss it so easily annoyed her. But then again, what was she to say.  
A group of pretty women could be seen walking across the street. Ranma's gaze followed them as they walked right past him.  
Motoko, feeling like she should do something, stepped forward to block Ranma's view. Deep down inside, she respected Nene and felt that she should at least do something to defend her.  
"Are you made of glass?" Ranma asked.  
"Huh?" Motoko asked.  
"Are you made of glass?" he repeated the question.  
"Glass? No, I'm not made of glass," she answered.  
"So why the hell are you standing in front of me? You're blocking my view," Ranma said, leaning toward the side to look past Motoko and at the group of passing women, "I'm trying to keep myself busy here,"  
Motoko let out an annoyed breath. Ranma seemed incorrigible. "I wonder how long both Nene and Nene-chan will be talkin' to one another," Ranma said, changing the subject, "It's gonna rain soon,"  
Motoko looked up, "Rain? The sky's clear,"  
"The air pressure's dropping," Ranma stated, "It's gonna rain in about an hour or so. C'mon, dontcha have some internal barometer or thingie that comes standard with that cybernetic body or is that an extra option you need to pay for?"  
"You really really annoy me," Motoko said.  
"So?" Ranma shrugged.  
"It makes me wonder how Nene could possibly be in love with you," Motoko said.  
Ranma did a double take, "What?"  
Motoko's eyes widened as Ranma's expression suddenly made her realize something.  
"Nothing," she tried to keep her composure, "I was just joking around,"  
"Uh uh," Ranma said, "You said that Nene's in love with me," The genuine surprise Ranma showed made Motoko realize that he had no idea.  
"Is that true?" Ranma asked, regarding Motoko intently.  
Purely from a woman's perspective, Motoko couldn't help but feel like she had just betrayed Nene in revealing some deep dark secret about Nene that Ranma wasn't supposed to know. She had assumed that Ranma only acted that way because he was stringing Nene along, but it seemed like that was not the case.  
"I was only joking around," Motoko said, wondering if it was possible to salvage that comment she shouldn't have let out.  
Ranma smirked, "Okay, if you say so,"  
His smirk made it obvious that he didn't believe her one bit.  
Ranma scratched his head, "Wow, all this time, I thought she just saw me as a friend. Unlike all the other girls, she's the only one that didn't come out and say she was in love with me, which made me think that she was different from all the other girls,"  
"Maybe it's because she's got a good head on her shoulders," Motoko said, noticing the slight opening, feeling a bit bad that she was making rude comments about people she didn't even know.  
"If you say so," Ranma smirked.  
Motoko became silent, knowing that Ranma seemed to believe her comment. How was she going to be able to salvage this situation. The situation was very different from other situations she had been in. This one dealt with the potential mortification of a fellow female. As a woman, Motoko was obligated to help Nene out in anyway possible.  
"Well, she mentioned something about that," Motoko said, "About being in love with you,"  
"What did she say?" Ranma asked, very interested in hearing the details.  
"She didn't say anything," Motoko said glibly, "I just assumed she's in love with you. Um, I notice how she constantly talks about you,"  
"Really? Like what?" he asked.  
"Like how you and her almost killed each other," Motoko said, "About how you two fought each other and seem to know each other from long time ago. Naturally, since you know each other so well, I figure some kinda feelings would've developed. It's only natural that knowing someone for so long, people eventually grow feeling for one another,"  
"So does that mean you and Bateau are an item?" Ranma smirked.  
"Nice try," Motoko said, "We only work together and that's it. And besides, even if we did have some kind of relationship, it's none of your business,"  
"I guess you have a point," Ranma said, more to himself, "I guess it is natural that feelings of friendship could develop into something more if you know and hung out with 'em for so long,"  
"Anyway, she seems to talk a lot about the stuff you've done which is why I assumed she was in love with you," Motoko said.  
"She never said she was in love with me?" he asked.  
Motoko shook her head, "No. She never said it. I just assumed it, that's all,"  
"Oh," he said.  
Motoko felt a bit a relief wash over her.  
It seemed like an potentially embarrassing situation for Nene was averted.

"Are you sure you're an AI?" Nene asked.  
Nene-chan nodded, "Yeah, I am,"  
"What does that mean?" Nene asked, "That you're completely robotic?"  
"Yes, I'm like Akane," Nene-chan said.  
Nene paused, "What did you say?"  
"I'm completely robotic," Nene-chan said.  
"No, you mentioned Akane's name," Nene said, "I know I heard that correctly. How the heck can you know about Akane?"  
"Akane? Who's that?" Nene-chan asked.  
"You just mentioned the name Akane," Nene said, "That must mean you know her in some way or another,"  
Nene-chan said, "I don't know what you're talking about,"  
Hm, it seems like my alternate self might've met some of us and isn't aware of it, Nene thought. But then again, she could be lying and really does know us somehow and accidentally let it slip that she does and is just acting innocent. I can't tell. Ranma can't read her mind so we'll never have any idea.  
"Forget what I mentioned," Nene said, wanting to talk about something different, "Anyway, you said you're completely AI. Does someone, um, own you or something?"  
Nene-chan shook her head, "No. I'm not property to anyone,"  
"Oh," Nene said, remembering something she read not too long ago, "So does that mean you're some kinda AI with a Ghost?"  
She remembered reading that a Ghost basically represented the soul for a robot.  
Nene-chan shook her head, "No. I have no Ghost,"  
Nene scratched her head, "I'm confused. You don't belong to anyone and you have no Ghost," "Thanks for the reminder," Nene-chan smirked.  
"No offense of course," Nene said, holding her hands up defensively, "I'm just curious as to how is it possible that you're living on your own and such?"  
Nene-chan shrugged, "I don't know. It's been like that for as long as I could remember,"  
"Boy, I'm really confused," Nene scratched her head, "I came to ask some questions but now I have even more questions. First off, you know Ranma,"  
Nene-chan nodded, "We met a short time ago,"  
"That's true, but Ranma mentioned that you act as if you actually know him, as if you know him from before," Nene stated, "Have you two ever met before then?"  
Nene-chan shook her head, "Not that I can recall. I'm sure if I met him, I'd remember him. I never met him before,"  
"Man, I'm so confused," Nene said, "I'm beginning to question if we are actually alternate version of one another. But then again, Ranma said you are and there's no reason not to believe him,"  
Nene-chan shrugged, "Maybe we aren't alternate selves of one another. I mean, we don't even look anything alike. Perhaps it's a coincidence that we would write the same code for a program,"  
"Well, you and I also share the same name," Nene said, "The fact that we would write the exact same program is something worth checking into. However, there's also the fact that we have the same names, and both seem to know Akane, must mean something. There's too many coincidences for this to be merely coincidental,"  
Nene sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Man, I wish Ritsuko was here. She'd probably be able to make heads or tails of what's going on,"

new stuff 5/15

Nene and the others followed Motoko into her apartment. Motoko's apartment was no ordinary apartment. Nene couldn't help but notice that Motoko's apartment was sparsely furnished. There wasn't even a television. Then again, she believed Motoko's life revolved around her work and something like watching television was considered counter productive. Her apartment was one giant room with that was basically the dining area and bedroom and livingroom. There was a kitchen and bathroom located just off to the side of the entrance.  
"Damn, this place reminds me of Rei's place when I first saw her apartment," Ranma commented.  
"I'm rarely home," Motoko answered.  
Bateau walked over to the lone chair off to the corner of the apartment and sat down, its legs creaking slightly due to the extreme weight of his cyborg body.  
"Do you guys want anything to drink?" Motoko asked, feeling annoyed at playing host, "I've got beer and water,"  
"Yeah, I'm thirsty," Nene answered, "I'd like some water,"  
"Same here," Ranma said, "Hold the poison though,"  
Motoko narrowed her eyes slightly but then she smirked. The thought had crossed her mind for a brief moment. It made her wonder if Ranma was a lot more perceptive than he led her to believe.  
"May I use your bathroom?" Nene asked.  
"It's the door to the right of the entrance," Motoko gestured.  
"Number one or number two?" Ranma asked curiously toward Nene's back.  
"Neither! Jeez, I just want to wash my hands," Nene said, annoyed and embarrassed.  
Ranma chuckled.  
After Nene left the room, Ranma walked over to the dresser by the corner of the room. He noticed a small framed picture that contained what looked like a group picture. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a group picture of her and her colleagues. "So, what should we do now?" Bateau asked, the question geared toward the both of them, "Our supposed Net-Master's really an AI, making her immune to cyber-  
crime laws,"  
"Man, that's cool," Ranma said, "It must be a real pisser. Who'dve thought that being an AI could work so much in the AI's favor. Since she's an AI, she can't be prosecuted or jailed or punished for her crimes,"  
"She's the most advanced AI I've ever seen," Bateau commented, "You'd swear that she had a ghost. But the truth is, she is truly an AI. However, because she's an AI, it means that someone is pulling her strings and making her do what she's been doing,"  
"So how're you gonna go about finding whoever this person is that's pulling her strings?" Ranma asked, "Does this mean you're basically back at square one?"  
"Since she's willing to cooperate, we will be interrogating her and hope to find out the answers," Motoko said, bringing back a glass of water, "We've dealt with cases like this before,"  
"Cases like this?" Ranma asked, accepting the glass of water. "Thanks,"  
He looked at the glass of water for a moment.  
"I didn't poison it," Motoko commented in annoyance.  
"It doesn't matter if you did," Ranma grinned, "Naw, it's just that I wondering why I even need to drink water. It's not like I get thirty," "What are you talking about?" Bateau asked.  
"Nevermind," Ranma said, "Anyway, what do you mean by 'cases like this'?"  
"Net-Master is somehow manipulating Nene-chan," Motoko answered, "We've dealt with cases like this before, where people were being manipulated without even realizing it. This is very much the same with Nene-chan. Because she's an AI, it's much easier to find out the information needed that will track us to the person manipulating her, Net-Master,"  
"Didn't Nene-chan confess that she did do those cyber-crimes?" Ranma asked.  
"She's an AI," Bateau answered as Motoko went back into the kitchen, "AI don't know the difference between good and evil. It's indistinguishable to them. Someone needs to manipulate her to do evil things, that person being Net-Master. That's the person we need to catch,"  
Ranma opened the dresser draw, just for the heck of it, "How long do you think it'll be before you manage to get the information needed from Nene-chan that'll lead you to this Net-Master person? I hope you don't intend to do any harm to her in the process because I won't let you,"  
"Not long," Motoko said, "Probably a day or two," Motoko wanted to argue with Ranma that it didn't matter if anything bad happened to Nene-chan because she was an AI. It made her wonder how Ranma could care for a ghostless AI. "Cool," Ranma said, "I'm kinda curious to know who this Net-Master is. All along I thought it was an alternate version of Nene. Now that we found her, it seems like it goes deeper than that,"  
Ranma grinned and he caught sight of some frilly looking fabric in the dresser draw.  
"What the heck are you doing?" Motoko asked, coming back into the livingroom with the second glass of water for when Nene came back from the bathroom.  
Ranma held his hand out to reveal a black pair of Motoko's cotton panties.  
"Wow, I'm a bit surprised to see that you wear cute cotton panties," Ranma chuckled, "These panties seem to contradict the tough girl image you seem to give off,"  
"Give those back!" Motoko shouted on anger and embarrassment, running toward Ranma.  
Ranma shrugged as he extended his hands forward and handed the pair of panties back to Motoko before she could do any bodily harm to him, provided that was actually possible.  
"Haven't you ever heard of a thing called privacy?" Motoko sneered, putting her panties back into the draw and closing it.  
Ranma regarded Motoko intently for a moment, his gaze piercing and making Motoko feeling a bit uneasy. "Man, I still have problems picturing you wearing cotton panties, even right this very moment," Ranma said, rubbing his chin, "From my impression of you, I figured you'd be the type of girl to go commando and wear no underwear. Get it? Commando?"  
Motoko gritted her teeth, thoroughly annoyed with Ranma. She would get her revenge on him one day.  
"I'm back," Nene said, "Did I miss anything?"  
Motoko realized she could have her revenge much earlier than expected.  
"Yeah, Ranma just tried stealing my panties," Motoko smirked, jerking a thumb toward him.  
"What? Ranma! You did? You're such a pervert!" Nene gasped.  
"Hey, don't misunderstand," Ranma held his hands up defensively, "It's not whatcha think,"  
"How so?" Nene wasn't one bit convinced.  
"Um, er," Ranma tried to think of something to say.  
Motoko smiled. Revenge, even though it was indirectly through Nene, was sweet.

Nene wondered what she should do now. She and Ranma were on their way back toward She felt almost obligated to help out her other self in some way or another and helping out Motoko at the same time. Unfortunately, she could only choose one.  
"You seem deep in thought," Ranma commented.

all ive got so far...

need to add ending where Ranma helps Motoko and batou with hostile takeover of section 9 and bring them back home with them 


End file.
